
GoEyriglit}^?..^ 



COnOtlGHT DEPOSm 



OLD PARK STREET AND 
ITS VICINITY 



OLD PARK STREET AND 
ITS VICINITY 



BY 
ROBERT MEANS LAWRENCE, M.D. 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 



BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

^f)C l^tberisibe Press; Cambribge 
1922 



COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY ROBERT MEANS LAWRENCE 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



i 



?,t}<^ 



tC6e l&ibtTfiiUt ISntii 

CAMBRIDGE • MASSACHUSETTS 
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. 



JUN 17 1922 



©CI.A674616 



The total elision of the R, and the amazing, broad, flat A, as in 
"Park Street," give to Bostonian speech a magnificently indige- 
nous tang; hint at juniper and spruce forests, rocky fields, pump- 
kins. Thanksgiving and pie. 

Harrison Rhodes 

Boston is just like other places of its size; only perhaps, consid- 
ering its excellent fish-market, paid fire department, superior 
monthly publications, and correct habit of spelling the English 
language, it has some right to look down upon the mob of cities. 

O. W. Holmes 

Let every child that is born of her, and every child of her adop- 
tion see to it to keep the name of Boston as clean as the Sun; and 
in distant ages her motto shall be the prayer of millions on all 
the hills that gird the town: "As with our Fathers, so God be 
with us." 

R. W. Emerson 

There is a region, lovelier far than Eden's vales and vistas are; 
Serene and sheltered in repose from every stormy wind that blows; 
A place than all besides more sweet; at once you know it. Beacon 
Street! 

Boston. A Poem, by A. F. W. ' 

Boston is one of the grandest, sure-footedest, clear-headedest, 
comfortablest cities on the globe. Onlike every other large city I 
was ever in, the most of the hackmen dont seem to have bin 
speshully intended by natur for the Burglery perfession. And 
its about the' only city 1 know of where you dont enjoy a bril- 
liant opp>ortunity of bein' swindled in sum way, from the risin' of 
the Sun to the goin' down thereof. There4 I say, loud and con- 
tinnerd applaus for Boston! 

Aetemds Ward 



PREFACE 

The development of Park Street, from the time of its 
origin in 1640 as a rude pathway leading across the 
easterly part of the Common, through the present 
State House grounds to the Beacon, may be con- 
veniently divided into four periods. In the early 
days the pressure of bovine hoofs was doubtless an 
important factor in its maintenance as a well-trodden 
trail up the incline to the summit of the hill. The 
building of the Almshouse in 1662 marked the be- 
ginning of the second period, which lasted about one 
hundred and forty years, when Centry Street was 
lined with public buildings devoted to the care of the 
worthy poor, vagrants, and criminals. Space was also 
reserved for the impounding of stray animals. The 
third or residential period included practically the 
whole of the nineteenth century, when Park Street 
was built up with the homes of many prominent cit- 
izens. The houses numbered one to four, as also 
number nine, the Amory-Ticknor dwelling, were 
built in 1804, and the others shortly thereafter. Some 
of these were reconstructed wholly or in part by later 
owners in conformity with the Bulfinch style of ar- 
chitecture. Finally, within recent times, mercantile 
interests have acquired control of a majority of the 

vii 



PREFACE 

estates; and the year 1907 marked the disappearance 
of the last resident on this street. Park Street Church 
was built in 1809 on the site of the Granary. 

Among the many to whom the writer is indebted 
for assistance are J. Collins Warren, M.D.; Bernard 
P. Verne, Esq.; Walter K. Watkins, Esq.; Miss Mar- 
garet Fitzhugh Browne, Miss Katharine P. Loring, 
Miss Jane L. Motley, Mrs. Charles H. Gibson, Mrs. 
Francis J. Moors, Miss Annie H. Thwing, Dean Rous- 
maniere; and Messrs. Charles K. Bolton, Alexander 
Corbett, Jr.; Frank H. Chase, George Francis Dow, 
Edward Dunham, William Lyman Johnson, Julius 
E. Tuttle, Charles F. Read, George A. Sawyer, 
Francis Manning, Andrew McCance, and William 
B. Clarke. 



177 Bay State Road, Boston 
April, 1922 



CONTENTS 



Beacon Hill 




1 


Beacon Street 




11 


The Laying of the Cornee-Stone of 


the State 




House 




20 


Park Street 




.24 


The Almshouse 




32 


The Towtst Pound 




87 


The Bridewell 




89 


The Workhouse 




41 


The Public Granary 




45 


The Granary Burying-Ground 




47 


Number One Park Street 




51 


Number Two Park Street 




65 


Number Three Park Street 




58 


Number Four Park Street 




62 


Number Five Park Street 




64 


Number Sex Park Street 




69 


Number Seven Park Street 




75 


The Union Club House 




79 


The Amory-Ticknor House — Number Nine Park 




Street 




81 


Reminiscences of Park Street, by 


J. Collins 




Warren, M.D. 




98 


Park Street Church^ 




115 


ix 







CONTENTS 

The Estates Numbered Eighteen and Twenty on 

THE South Side of Beacon Street 123 

Number Sixteen Beacon Street 125 

Numbers Twelve and Fourteen Beacon Street 130 
The Athen^um Lot — Number Ten and a Half 

Beacon Street 131 

The Molineaux Estate 133 

The Bowdoin Estate 139 

The Bromfield Homestead 143 

The Hinckley Mansion-House 147 

The Sears Estate 152 

The Lloyd Mansion-House 154 

The Paddock Elms 157 

The Trees on the Common 160 

The Gingko Tree on the Common 162 

Ulmus campestris venerabilis 164 

Index 165 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

' Park Street Church and Park Street about 1812 

Colored Frontispiect 
From a fireboard in the Collections of the Bostonian Society 

Park, Beacon, and Tremont Streets in 1722 24 

From an ideal sketch based on Bonner's Map and surveys in the 
City Engineer's Office, Boston. By courtesy of Dr. James B. 
Ayer 

View of Park Street from the State House 52 

The Old Gate at the Corner of Park and Tre- 
mont Streets 98 

Park Street Church about 1870 116 

From a photograph owned by Dr. J. Collins Warren 



OLD PARK STREET AND 
ITS VICmiTY 

• 

BEACON HILL 

The original name of Park Street was Sentry or Gen- 
try Street. As early as 1673 its upper portion, running 
northwesterly, was described as the way leading from 
the Common or Training Field to Sentry (now Bea- 
con) Hill, on whose summit stood the tall mast which 
served as the great alarm tower of the town. Near its 
top was suspended an iron cresset, wherein combus- 
tible materials were deposited. At intervals along the 
sides of the mast were foot supports, to facilitate the 
ascent to the cresset. The first Beacon was erected in 
accordance with a vote passed by the General Court 
in March, 1635, whereby it was ordered that such a 
warning signal should be set up on Centry or Centinel 
Hill. The vote read as follows: "It is ordered that 
there shall be a Beacon sett on Centry Hill at Boston, 
to give notice to the country of any danger; and that 
there shall be a ward of one person kept there from 
the first of April to the last of September; and that 
upon the discovery of any danger, the Beacon shall 
be fired, and an alarum given; as also messengers sent 
by that towne where the danger is discovered, to all 

1 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

other townes within their jurisdiction." The early 
settlers of Boston were apprehensive of possible at- 
tacks by the Indians in their neighborhood. Such 
fears, however, proved groundless; although many of 
the villages farther inland were not so fortunate. A 
piece of land, six rods square, on the summit of the 
hill, was set apart by the Town for the Beacon, with 
a passageway from the Common thereto.^ 

According to a recent writer, the erection of a po- 
tential torch on the summit of Beacon Hill was a 
noteworthy event. Thereby the Beacon became a 
landmark in both the physical and historical land- 
scape. But during the long period of its existence, it 
does not appear that any warning light was ever dis- 
played from its cresset. It is doubtful, in the words of 
one historian, if there was ever a spark of fire in its 
iron pot. The Beacon was maintained in its original 
position for more than one hundred and fifty years, 
although not in commission during two or three com- 
paratively short periods. Here follows an extract 
from the Selectmen's "Minutes," April, 1741: 
"Whereas for many years past there has been erected 
a Beacon on Beacon Hill; which in the winter past 
was blown down; the Question was put whether it 
would not be for the benefit of the Town to have a 
new one erected on the same place.''" This was de- 
cided in the affirmative; and twelve pounds were 
allowed Mr. William Bo wen for the purpose. Accord- 

* The Memorial History of Boston, i, 275. 
% 



BEACON HILL 

ingly a new mast of white oak was set up In the fol- 
lowing October. The Beacon was destroyed again 
during a tempest in November, 1789, and was soon 
after replaced by the Beacon Hill Monument, which 
was built, as inscribed on one of its tablets, " to com- 
memorate the train of events which led to the Amer- 
ican Revolution, and finally secured Liberty and 
Independence to the United States." 

The destruction of the old landmark was announced 
in the "Independent Chronicle," December 3, 1789, 
as follows: "The Beacon which was erected on Bacon 
Hill during the last war, to alarm the country in case 
of an invasion of the British into this town, was on 
Thursday night last blown down." 

This was the first monument of its kind in the 
country. It was a plain Doric column of brick, cov- 
ered with stucco, and standing on a stone pedestal. 
The monument was surmounted by a gilded wooden 
eagle. It was designed by the eminent architect, 
Charles Bulfinch, and was his first important work, 
which owed its existence to his patriotic fervor and en- 
ergy. This monument was taken down in 1811, when 
the summit of the hill was levelled. In 1898 a repro- 
duction in stone was erected on the same site under 
the auspices of the Bunker Hill Monument Association, 
and the original inscribed tablets were placed upon its 
four sides. It has been said that the name of Beacon 
Hill is as sacred to the people of New England as was 
that of Mount Sinai to the Israelites. Nathaniel In- 

3 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

gersoU Bowditch, the learned conveyancer, in one of 
his "Gleaner Articles," gave a description of the Bea- 
con as it appeared to an intelligent merchant during 
his boyhood days in the year 1787. "At that time," 
he wrote, "there was a stone basement on which rested 
four horizontal timbers crossing each other in the 
centre. From this centre rose as high a mast as could 
be procured; and the mast was supported by braces. 
It was surmounted by a tar-barrel, which being set on 
fire in case of danger, was to serve as a beacon to the 
country around. There was an apparatus of ladders 
for ascending to this tar-barrel; but fortunately it was 
never found necessary to give this warning signal. 
The hill was of a very peculiar conical shape, and the 
boys were accustomed to throw balls up as far as 
possible toward its summit, the balls rebounding 
from it, as from a wall." The original Beacon Hill 
was described by another correspondent as a grassy 
hemisphere, so steep that one could with difficulty 
mount its sides; descending with a perfectly regular 
curve to the streets on the south, west, and north. 
On the east it had been encroached upon, and the 
contour was broken. Just opposite to the end of Cool- 
idge Avenue, on Derne Street, there was a flight of 
wooden steps, ten or fifteen in number, leading part- 
way up the hill. Above that point one had to climb 
by means of the foot-holes that had been worn in the 
surface along a wide path trodden bare by the feet, 
to the top, where there was a space, some fifty feet 

4 



BEACON HILL 

square, of level ground. In the midst of this space 
stood the monument. Descending by the south side, 
one followed a similar rough gravel path to another 
flight of plank steps, leading down to the level of 
Mount Vernon Street, and terminating at about the 
position of the house numbered thirteen on that 
street. "The sport of batting the ball up the hill, and 
meeting it again on its descent, was played by some 
boys ; but it was not so easy a game as one might sup- 
pose, on account of the diflSculty of maintaining one's 
footing on the hillside, which was so steep as to re- 
quire some skill even to stand erect upon it." Beacon 
Hill, which was regarded as quite a high mountain by 
the early settlers, is still the most prominent height 
of land within the City limits. The top of the State- 
House Dome is said to be about on a level with the 
highest point of the middle peak of the original three 
summits of Sentry Hill. The Beacon Hill of to-day 
has been described as "a gentle elevation, crowned 
upon its single summit by the State House." 

Yet whoever walks briskly from the Boylston 
Street Subway Station up the incline to Joy Street, 
without pausing to take breath, may realize that 
Beacon Hill remains a considerable elevation. Shortly 
before the Revolution, the hill was covered with small 
cedar trees and native shrubbery, with here and there 
a cow-path, through which the herds ranged unmo- 
lested. ^ 

^ S. A. Drake, Landmarks, 

5 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

It does not appear that the old Beacon Hill Monu- 
ment was a very imposing structure. It was described 
by a traveller who visited Boston in 1792 as "a ridic* 
ulous obelisk, if such the thing may be called, which 
is placed on the highest point of the hill, by way of 
ornament. It puts one in mind of a farthing candle, 
placed in a large candlestick." ^ 

The exact date of the Monument's removal is fixed 
by a written statement preserved in the office of the 
Secretary of the Commonwealth, and bearing the sig- 
nature of the person who superintended the opera- 
tion. Its wording is as follows: 

Boston. July the 8th; 1811. At three o'clock this after- 
noon I lowered the Eagle from the Beacon Hill Monument. 
At the very same time the next day I undermined and 
dropped the Monument from the hill; and no harm was 
done to any person. 

Atherton Haugh Stevens 

One of the earliest writers about Boston, William 
Wood, described Beacon Hill as "a high mountain, 
with three little rising hills on top of it; wherefore it is 
called Tramount." Historians have definitely located 
these peaks as follows: the middle and tallest one. 
Gentry or Beacon Hill, was situated behind the pres- 
ent State House. Westward of this was a lesser ele- 
vation, known as Copley's Hill, and later Mount 
Vernon. The eastern spur was called Cotton, after- 
ward Pemberton Hill. These three hills, forming 

* Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 1871. 

6 



BEACON HILL 

Trimountain, "extended through the centre of the 
peninsula, from the head of Hanover Street to the 
water beyond the State House"; that is, presumably, 
to about the line of Charles Street.^ 

The laying-out of this thoroughfare from Park 
Square to Leverett Street, near the present Charles 
River Dam, was completed in 1809. In June, 1812, 
the Town authorities voted " to have the Street next 
to the Ropewalks at the bottom of the Common 
raised, so as to form a foot-walk, six feet wide, with a 
row of timber on each side, and filled between with 
gravel, as a further protection against high tides." 
At such times it appears that the water of the Charles 
River extended from near the corner of Cambridge 
and West Cedar Streets, past Beacon Street, and up 
the latter for about one hundred and forty feet. When 
workmen were excavating for the cellar of the house 
numbered sixty-one on this street, they are said to 
have encountered shells and other evidence of a river- 
bed. 

As early as 1758 the preservation of Beacon Hill be- 
came a subject for serious consideration. Thomas 
Hodson, an unaccommodating citizen, and others, per- 
sisted in encroaching on the northern side, thus im- 
pairing its symmetry. In May, 1764, a committee of 
townspeople, appointed for the purpose, reported that 
they had viewed the premises, and that in their opin- 
ion it was necessary for the preservation of the hill 

* The State House, page 5. 

7 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

" to have the Highway that runs between the land of 
Thomas Hancock Esq ; and the land of Mr. William 
Mullineux, and the avenues thereto, shut up, and 
sown with Hay Seed, till it is brought to a good 
Sword. And whereas the said Hill is in very great 
danger of being destroyed by Thomas Hodson and 
others digging gravel on his lot; they are of Opinion 
that it would be advisable to apply to the Assembly 
for an Act to prevent the destruction of Beacon Hill." 
This hill, as it appeared toward the close of the 
eighteenth century, was described by President 
Timothy Dwight, of Yale College, as almost a waste 
tract. In the year 1796 it was bought by three citi- 
zens of Boston; its irregularities and roughnesses were 
removed at great expense, its western declivity cut 
down, and a field of about thirty acres was trans- 
formed into a smooth tract, affording ideal building 
sites. Soon after this field was partly covered with 
pretentious houses. And in splendor of building and 
nobleness of situation, the summit of Beacon Hill, in 
the opinion of the above-named writer, was unrivalled 
on this side of the Atlantic. The western side of the 
hill, previously regarded as suburban, where wild 
roses and barberry bushes throve, was thus com- 
pletely transformed; and this result was largely due 
to the enterprise and business sagacity of Harrison 
Gray Otis and Jonathan Mason, who represented the 
Mount Vernon proprietors. Various modifications of 
the early name, Gentry Hill, appear in old deeds and 

8 



BEACON HILL 

in the Town Records. Among these are found the 
following: Sentry, Centery, Center, and Centinel Hill. 
The name Century Street also appears, meaning Gen- 
try or Park Street. 

The removal of the original three peaks of Beacon 
Hill reduced it to about one half of its former height. 
But, as has been well said, the Common remains a dis- 
tinctive feature of the topography of Boston; and the 
fact that it has been preserved with comparatively 
little change from almost the beginning of the settle- 
ment renders it the more precious. Originally pur- 
chased from William Blackstone for thirty pounds 
sterling, its value is officially estimated at this time 
at forty-eight million dollars, or 320,000 times the 
amount paid for it in the year 1634. But as a health 
resort the value is incapable of estimation. A prom- 
enade within its borders, especially around the Frog 
Pond when children are frolicking thereabout, has 
been recommended for persons of a melancholy dis- 
position. Even a nervous headache may be relieved, 
according to one authority, by watching the laborers 
in their task of combing the grass during the annual 
spring cleaning.^ "Will it be believed," wrote an ad- 
miring tourist many years ago, "that this enchanting 
Common takes its name from having been a common 
cow pasture, and is actually given up to that animal .^^ " ^ 

A Londoner who sojourned at Boston in the autumn 

1 H. B. WilHaras, The Common. 1842. 
* Ali Bey, Journal of Travels in North America. 
9 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

of 1920 declared that Beacon Hill had for him an irre- 
sistible attraction. "And then Beacon Street," he 
wrote, "looking out, as it does, on a green Common, 
where Boston has the courage to saunter; and not go 
rushing with firm-set jaw up from the turmoil of Tre- 
mont Street, or down into it; intent on nothing but 
getting somewhere, and quite oblivious of the way it 
gets there. . . . And the narrow streets! The scarcely 
more than lanes, which at noontime are choked with 
good-natured strollers, who have the right of way, and 
cause no end of inconvenience to the poor motorist, 
who is struggling to understand the gyrations of the 
agile marionettes of the law; and the shopping streets, 
whose sidewalks are not wide enough to hold their 
travellers, might have been transported straight 
across from that part of London known as the City: 
the old, old part, paved with cobble-stones, which 
used to echo with the click-clack of hoofs prancing 
before some ornate, lumbering post-chaise." 

Long before the motor car was dreamed of as a pos- 
sible means of transportation, it appears that the 
traflSc in Boston's thoroughfares rendered downtown 
pedestrianism somewhat strenuous. What matters it 
to a lover of bygone days, wrote Edmund Quincy, in 
the year 1837, that the din of busy life is in his ears; 
that he is jostled at every turn by eager traffickers; 
and that his escape with life from the thundering 
throng of drags and stage-coaches is a standing mir- 
acle? 



BEACON STREET 

The portion of this highway lying between Somer- 
set and Tremont Streets, formed originally a part of 
School Street. About five years after the setting up 
of the Beacon, a roadway was laid out thereto, ex- 
tending from the principal thoroughfare (now Wash- 
ington Street) in accordance with a vote of the Town, 
March 30, 1640, as follows: "It is ordered that the 
Streete from Mr. Atherton Haulghe's to the Gentry 
Hill be lay'd out, and soe kept open for ever." Ather- 
ton Hough, a former Alderman of Boston, Lincoln- 
shire, had come over from England in 1633 with the 
Reverend John Cotton and other prominent persons. 
His residence was on the southwest corner of Wash- 
ington and School Streets. Under the date August 20, 
1660, is to be found this Order in the Town Records: 
"Whereas there was a Streete ordered formerly from 
Mr. Haughe's house to the Centry Hill; and Lieuten- 
ant Robert Turner hath lately erected a new house in 
the said line; It is ordered that the Select men, with 
the four Captaines, shall have power to order the said 
Streete to the best advantage of the towne." It ap- 
pears that the section of Beacon Street between the 
site of King's Chapel and the Beacon was not used as 
a roadway immediately after being laid out; but the 
land was leased to individuals for cultivation in gar- 

11 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

dening.* School Street was so named by the Town in 
1708, and in the first Boston Directory, of 1789, it is 
called "South Latin School Street.'* 

Early in the eighteenth century the western limit of 
Beacon Street was at or near the Shaw Monument. It 
was afterward described as leading "from Tremont 
Street over Beacon Hill, westerly through the upper 
side of the Common, and so down to the Sea." At 
that period, therefore, it extended as far as the present 
Charles Street, to a point very near the former garden 
of the pioneer settler, William Blackstone. As early 
as June, 1724, Simon Rogers was granted leave to 
build a wooden house on Beacon Street, as set forth in 
his petition, and entered in the Book for recording 
Timber Buildings. Simon Rogers was the name of the 
landlord who was in charge of the George Tavern 
near the Roxbury line, at about that period. For 
some years after the Hancock house was built. Bea- 
con Street seems to have remained in a somewhat 
neglected state. And evidently the disposition of the 
water, which poured down from off the steep incline 
of the original Beacon Hill in rainy seasons, was a 
diflScult problem for the Town authorities. On May 
2, 1739, a committee reported that whereas pre- 
viously the water from Beacon Street had mostly run 
across the Common, and so took its course into 
Winter Street, its direction had been changed by 
raising the grade of the Common opposite to the head 

* A Record of the Streets, Lanes, etc., in the City of Boston. 1910. 

12 



BEACON STREET 

of the latter highway. "So that now," in the words 
of the Report, "the water from Beacon Street will 
spread over the Common; and as little will run down 
through Winter Street as runs through most streets 
of the Town." 

One of the first houses built on Beacon Hill was the 
stone mansion of Thomas Hancock, dating from 1737, 
and afterward the residence of his nephew, John 
Hancock, the patriot, who was the first Governor of 
Massachusetts under the Constitution, serving from 
1780 till 1785. The price paid for this house-lot in 
1735 was one thousand dollars. It comprised about 
an acre of land. Adjoining it on the west were the 
stable and carriage-house. His cow pasture, which in- 
cluded the whole of the present State-House grounds, 
had been bought by Thomas Hancock in 1752 for 
eleven hundred dollars. In 1855 it was estimated to 
be worth eleven hundred thousand dollars. "A thou- 
sand fold rise in value," wrote Nathaniel IngersoU 
Bowditch, in "Gleaner Articles," "is very fair for such 
an old place as Boston." According to an inventory of 
the estate of Captain Nathaniel Cunningham, land in 
lower Beacon Street was worth less than one hundred 
dollars an acre in 1757. Previous to the Revolution, 
Beacon Hill was distinctly rural in character; and we 
learn that it was the acquisition of the Hancock pas- 
ture as the site of the new State House which gave the 
impulse for the development of this region. 

On August 15, 1739, Mr. Thomas Hancock ap- 

13 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

peared before the Board of Selectmen, and informed 
them^that since tiie Common or Training Field had 
been railed in, the highway called Beacon Street, 
whereon his house fronted, had been "so much used 
by Carts, Horses, etc; passing in it, that he appre- 
hended what he had done to make the said highway 
convenient, will be greatly damnified, and the said 
highway spoiled, and soon become a nuisance, unless 
some means be taken to prevent the same." 

In response to a petition of several inhabitants, 
whose estates abutted on Beacon Street, setting forth 
the necessity of paving said street, the Town appro- 
priated fifty pounds sterling for that purpose in the 
year 1754. It seems, however, that the citizens nat- 
urally became more chary of expenditures during the 
hard times immediately preceding the Revolution. 
For at an adjourned public Town Meeting, held in the 
Reverend Dr. Joseph Sewall's Meeting-House (the 
Old South Church) in March, 1761, a request for funds 
wherewith to repave Bacon Street was voted down. 

In November, 1815, the Selectmen authorized the 
widening of that portion of Beacon Street lying be- 
tween the southwest corner of the State-House yard 
and Belknap (now Joy) Street, by taking from the 
Hancock estate a strip of land averaging about eight- 
een feet in breadth. This action was in response to a 
petition presented by a number of gentlemen residing 
near by. They maintained that the public safety and 
convenience required this widening, and that the im^ 

14 



BEACON STREET 

provement could be made at that time with peculiar 
convenience "owing to the shattered and ruinous 
condition of the fences" occasioned by the historic 
equinoctial gales of September in the same year. 

Early in the nineteenth century, land on Beacon 
Street, anywhere between the top of the hill and the 
present Charles Street, could be bought at the rate 
of about seventy-five cents a foot. Dr. Jerome Van 
Crowninshield Smith, who was Mayor of Boston in 
1854, related that a worthy carpenter named Inger- 
soll, of "unsullied reputation," was employed to 
fence in a lot on Beacon Hill, west of the State House, 
where there was a luxurious growth of huckleberry 
bushes. Mr. Ingersoll built a substantial fence, and 
in due time presented his bill, which the landowner 
considered excessive. After vainly endeavoring to ob- 
tain a reduction, the owner offered the land in pay- 
ment for the fence. This offer was indignantly re- 
fused. A half-century later the same piece of land, 
with the buildings thereon, was worth nearly a million 
dollars.^ In the very early days lots within the Town 
limits were divided among the inhabitants, and cost 
from one to fifteen shillings an acre. Swamps and 
rocky land went for naught. There were no side- 
walks until after the Revolution. We have read that 
the townsfolk of Old Boston rose and went to bed 
early, wrought hard, and had long prayers several 
times daily. " They did n't laugh often enough, and 

* The Boston Almanac. 1853. 

15 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

were too strait-laced. Dogs and small boys were not 
happy. The maidens were as demure as tabbies, and 
wore ribbons. Their gallants wore periwigs, though 
the pulpit thundered against them.'* 

The present State-House lot was bequeathed by 
Thomas Hancock to his widow, Lydia, together with 
his mansion-house, the gardens and other adjoining 
lands; also various outbuildings, including the car- 
riage-house, and his chariots, chaises, and horses, 
besides all his negroes. Mrs. Hancock died in 1777, 
and Governor John Hancock was her sole residuary 
legatee. The estate comprised "all the State House 
lot and lands to the west of it as far as Belknap Street 
(previously called Clapboard Street, now Joy Street) 
and all of Beacon Hill to the north of it." ^ In 1800, 
and for some years thereafter, Sumner Street led from 
Beacon Street, opposite to the head of Park Street, 
nearly due north and past the new State House, to the 
Beacon Monument. The location of Sumner Street 
is shown on a plan of Boston from actual survey, by 
Osgood Carleton. 

The first hrick house on Beacon Street was built by 
the Honorable John Phillips, Boston's first Mayor, in 
1804. This house, now occupied by the Misses Ma- 
son, was the birthplace of Wendell Phillips. In the 
very early days of the nineteenth century. Beacon 
Street was considered rather remote. When Mr. 
John Phillips moved into his new house, his uncle, 

* Gleaner Articles, page 107. 

16 



BEACON STREET 

Judge Oliver Wendell, was asked what had induced 
his nephew to reside out of town! ^ At that period 
there were but three houses on Beacon Street between 
Charles Street and the top of the hill. The fourth 
house built in that locality belonged to Dr. John Joy, 
a druggist, whose shop was on Washington Street, at 
the corner of Spring Lane. His wife was an invalid, 
and her physician advised her removal to Beacon 
Street, which she was averse to doing, because it 
seemed so far away. 

"That this part of the city is really on a hill," 
wrote Robert Shackelton, in the "Book of Boston," 
"is recognized as you climb it; and if, on some of the 
streets, you sit inside one of the bowed windows, and 
a man is walking down the hill, you are likely to see 
him from the waist up as he passes the upper window, 
and to see only the top of his hat when he passes the 
lower. This Beacon Hill is so charming a part of the 
city as to be supreme among American perched places, 
for delightfulness of homes and city living." 

The denizens of the "Hub" are so accustomed to 
raillery and banter regarding their crooked thorough- 
fares and alleged provincialism that a few words of 
praise for Beacon Hill from unprejudiced observers 
may not seem inconsistent with becoming modesty. 
Anthony Trollope, the English novelist, who visited 
Boston during the Civil War, remarked that Beacon 
Street bears some resemblance to Piccadilly as it runs 

* The Memorial History of Boston, iii, 225. 

17 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

along the Green Park in London. And there is also 
a Green Park in Boston, called the Common, he ob- 
served. Mr. Trollope avowed that he had become 
enamoured of the Lincolnshire seaport's American 
namesake. The State House, with its great yellow 
dome, was sightly in his eyes. And the sunsets over 
the western waters that encompass the city were su- 
perior in brilliancy to all other sunsets that he had 
ever seen. "I have stood upon the keep of Caris- 
brooke Castle in the Isle of Wight," wrote E. C. 
Wines in "A Trip to Boston" (1838), "on the Lean- 
ing Tower of Pisa; on the dome of the Cathedral at 
Florence; on the summits of Gibraltar, Vesuvius, the 
Acro-Corinthus at Corinth, Greece; the Acropolis of 
Sardis in Asia Minor; and on many other elevated 
points in all the four continents. And I declare that 
few of the prospects thus obtained are equal, and 
fewer still superior, to that enjoyed from the State 
House at Boston." Again, a well-known English 
author and traveller, E. V. Lucas, after a tour of 
sight-seeing in this country during the year 1820, 
admired the "serene fagades" of the Beacon-Street 
houses overlooking the Common. These fagades 
he considered to be "as satisfying as anything in 
Georgian London." 

In some "Sketches of History, Life and Manners in 
the United States" (New Haven, Conn., 1826), the 
author, Mrs. Roy all, of Saint Stephens, a village on 
the Tombigee River in Alabama, thus wrote: "The 

18 



BEACON STREET 

State House, Boston, a grand edifice, with a lofty 
dome, stands upon the highest ground in the City, 
nearly in the centre. This, and the cupolas of Faneuil 
Hall, the Old State House, and a dozen others, with 
about seventy white steeples, pierce the clouds in 
every part of the town. Much as I had travelled, and 
curious as I had been to regard the scenery of the 
States through which I passed, never had I seen any- 
thing to compare with this view from the State-House 
cupola. Even my favorite scenery in Washington 
City shrinks into nothing beside it." And the gilded 
Dome was described by Henry James as "high in the 
air; poised in the right place over everything that 
clustered below; the most felicitous object in Boston." 



THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE 
OF THE STATE HOUSE 

In 1795 the Hancock pasture became the property of 
the Town; and on May 2d of that year it was for- 
mally transferred to the Commonwealth "for the 
purpose of erecting thereon a State House for the 
accommodation of all the legislative and executive 
branches of the Government." The corner-stone of 
the new building was laid with impressive ceremonies 
by the Governor, Samuel Adams, on Saturday, July 
4, 1795, being the twentieth anniversary of the Dec- 
laration of Independence. Preliminary exercises were 
held in the Old South Church, where an oration was 
delivered by George Blake, Esq., and was received 
with great enthusiasm. In the large assemblage, 
which included many distinguished officials and other 
prominent citizens, "every countenance (some few 
excepted) smiledwith joy and satisfaction. The whole 
audience listened with profound admiration to the 
end; when, as if by some impulse of sentiment and 
soul, the citizens filled the House of God with Praise 
and Joy." 

At the conclusion of these exercises a Procession 
was formed, as follows: 



20 



CORNER-STONE OF THE STATE HOUSE 

The Independent Fusileers 

Martial Music 

Two Toilers 

The Corner-Stone 

on a truck decorated with ribbons, and drawn by 

fifteen white horses, with a leader. 

Operative Masons 

Grand Marshal ' 

Stewards with Staves 

Entered Apprentices and Fellow Crafts 

Three Master Masons 

bearing the Square, Level, and Plumb-Rule 

Three Stewards 

bearing Corn, Wine, and Oil 

Master Masons 

Officers of Lodges in their respective Jewels 

Past Masters, Royal Arch, etc. 

Grand Toiler 

Band of Music, decorated 

Grand Stewards 

Grand Deacons with Wands 

Grand Treasurer and Grand Secretary 

Past Grand Wardens 

Grand Senior and Junior Wardens 

Past Deputy Grand Masters 

Past Grand Masters 

Reverend Clergy 

Grand Master attended by the 

Deputy Grand Master and Stewards 

Deputy Grand Marshal 

Sheriff of Suffolk 

The Agents of the Commonwealth 

His Excellency the Governor 

His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor 

The Adjutant-General 

The Quartermaster-General 

The Honorable Council 

Members of the Legislature 

Clergy and Strangers of Distinction 



21 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

In this order they marched to the State-House site, 
where the Corner-Stone was laid by Governor Adams, 
assisted by officials of the Grand Lodge of Free- 
masons of Massachusetts.^; 

It appears that at that time certain elements 
among the citizens of the Commonwealth were jeal- 
ous of Boston's supremacy as the Metropolis of New 
England. For to what other motive can be attributed 
the following extract from a Salem newspaper of Sep- 
tember 15, 1795 .f^ "Notwithstanding that the corner- 
stone of a new State House has been laid with so much 
pomp in Boston, it is doubted whether a superstruc- 
ture will ever rest upon it; as the factious attempts of 
the Bostonians to govern the State render that town 
a very improper place for legislative deliberations!" 

On Thursday, January 11, 1798, the "Supreme 
Executive" met the members of the Legislature in 
the Senate Chamber of the Old State House; this 
being their last meeting in that historic building. 
And at noon of the same day the State officials, in- 
cluding the Senators and Representatives, with other 
dignitaries, proceeded to the new "Commonwealth 
House," where the Reverend Doctor Thatcher, Chap- 
lain of the General Court, in an eloquent address, 
"dedicated the building to the most honorable of 
human pursuits; the honor of God, and the people's 
good." ^ Governor Increase Sumner also made an 

* The Columbian Centinel, July 8, 1795. 
2 The Centinel. January 13, 1798. 

22 



CORNER-STONE OF THE STATE HOUSE 

address, wherein he dwelt upon the advantages of the 
new edifice; commenting upon its convenient apart- 
ments, suitable retirement, wholesome surroundings, 
and delightful prospect. He remarked, moreover, 
that perhaps no more useful or magnificent public 
building was to be found in the United States at that 
time. 

The distinguished editor, Richard Grant White, 
described the State-House Dome as a protension 
heavenward of the Hub of the Universe; the globed 
and gilded tip of that axis around which all that is 
best in western civilization revolves, ever has re- 
volved, and as it seems, ever will revolve. 

In the opinion of the same writer, the edifice, while 
not a very wonderful or beautiful structure, compels 
admiration on account of its expression of dignity, 
decorum, and eminent respectability. 

The Dome, originally built of wood, was sheathed 
with copper in 1802. The red bricks of the main 
building were painted white in 1825. Many years 
later the lead color of the Dome was changed to yel- 
low; and in 1874 a covering of gold leaf was applied. 
The present cupola dates from 1897, and is a repro- 
duction of the original one.^ 

» The Stale House Guide. 1917. 



PARK STREET 

In 1708 Sentry (now Park Street) was officially 
known as the highway extending from Common (now 
Tremont) Street, up Sentry Hill, to the former head 
of Temple Street, within the State-House grounds. 
It was sometimes called Century Street, and the 
exact time of the adoption of the name Park Street 
is uncertain. This name, however, appears on Carle- 
ton's Plan of the Town, attached to the first Boston 
Directory in 1789. And in 1800 Park Street was 
shown as extending from the Granary at the foot of 
Common Street to the Almshouse on Beacon Street. 
At that period, we are told, the appearance of the 
now thriving thoroughfare was unattractive, with its 
row of old, dingy public buildings and dilapidated 
fences. In 1803 or thereabout this highway was laid 
out anew by Bulfinch, and was then called Park 
Place. But its present name soon after came into 
general use. All this region was for some eighty years 
a part of the Common. In 1813 Park Street was men- 
tioned as leading from the head of Tremont Street 
Mall to the State House. Park Street Mall dates from 
1826, and the iron fence surrounding the Common 
was built ten years later. 

On Bonner's Map of 1722 more than a dozen houses 
are shown within the irregular quadrilateral bounded 



PARK STREET 

by Tremont, Park, and Beacon Streets. Yet on Wil- 
liam Burgiss's map, of about the year 1728, but three 
houses appear on this same territory; and these were 
on the site of the present Tremont Building. ^ 

Before its improvement by Bulfinch, as already 
mentioned, Park Street appears to have received little 
attention. It was described as a narrow, vagrant 
lane, ill-defined and tortuous, which had not been 
accepted by the Town. 

Indeed, the locality was said to have been hardly 
respectable before the appearance of Mr. George 
Ticknor, and the building of his fine mansion-house, 
"which was to dignify and illumine the region at the 
head of the street." And it is a happy circumstance 
that this former mansion-house, although long since 
enlarged and given over to business uses, yet stands 
as a reminder of its old-time supremacy as a pioneer 
of respectability for the neighborhood. 

*'The site formerly occupied by the Granary and 
Almshouse," wrote Shubael Bell in 1817, *'is called 
Park Place, composed of a range of elegant, lofty 
buildings, in an improved style of architecture, after 
the modern, English models. The upper end of Park 
Place is terminated by a stately mansion, which will 
long be remembered as the residence of that accom- 
plished gentleman and able statesman, our late Gov- 
ernor, Christopher Gore. A superb meeting-house 
makes the lower corner, and the appearance from the 

* First Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston. 

25 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

Common has a fine effect. The venerable mansion of 
Hancock in Beacon Street remains as it was, aloof 
from modern improvements. This street is now lined 
with elegant buildings down to the Bay, which have 
a compleat view of the Common in front, and an ex- 
tensive prospect of the scenery beyond Charles River, 
which nature formed delightful, and art has greatly 
embellished." ^ 

The famous coast, over whose icy incline the Bos- 
ton boys were wont to slide, had been in use for this 
popular sport from an early period. It extended east- 
erly from just below the crest of Beacon Hill, near 
the present Unitarian Building, down Beacon and 
School Streets, as far as Washington Street. Affixed 
to the iron fence in front of the City-Hall grounds is 
a bronze tablet, which was placed there by the Boston 
Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution in 
1907. The tablet bears the following inscription: 
"Here stood the house occupied in 1774-1775 by 
General Frederick Haldiman, to whom the Latin 
School boys made protest against the destruction of 
their coast. He ordered the coast restored, and re- 
ported the affair to General Gage, who observed that 
it was impossible to beat the notion of Liberty out of 
the people, as it was rooted in them from their child- 
hood." The boys' complaint is said to have been 
tactfully worded. They maintained that the sport of 
coasting was one of their inalienable rights, sanc- 

* The Bostonian Society Publications, ui. 1919. 

26 



PARK STREET 

tioned by custom from time immemorial. General 
Haldiman was prompt in yielding to their demand; 
and ordered his servant not only to remove the ashes 
from their coast, but also to water it on cold nights. 

In the "fifties" of the last century the "Long 
Coast" extended from the corner of Park and Beacon 
Streets to the former West Street Gate of the Common, 
"and as much farther as one's impetus would carry 
him." James D'Wolf Lovett, in his fascinating vol- 
ume, entitled "Old Boston Boys, and the Games they 
Played," gives a vivid account of the sport of coasting 
in those days; a pastime which was keenly relished 
by many of his contemporaries. 

Even after Boston became a city, Park Street was 
in a neglected condition, as is evident from a petition 
addressed by the residents to the Mayor and Alder- 
men, and dated June 20, 1823. The petitioners rep- 
resented that no common sewer had ever existed in 
Park Street, and that the drains there emptied into 
a hogshead placed in the middle of the roadway. 
This receptacle was said to be connected by pipes 
with the old Almshouse and Workhouse drains. 
Within two years the hogshead had twice burst 
open during the hot season, "to the great annoyance 
of passengers, and great danger to the health of the 
good citizens of Boston." Moreover, the petition- 
ers expressed the opinion that the decomposition of 
vegetable substances and the effluvia from bad 
drains were chief causes of the diseases peculiar to 

27 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

cities. They therefore requested the authorities to 
adopt such measures as would abate the nuisance, so 
that the atmosphere might retain its purity, and that 
the health of the community might be safeguarded. 
In a second petition, dated March 30, 1824, it was 
stated that Park Street was much out of repair, and 
that a new roadway was urgently needed. 

At a meeting of the Board of Aldermen, November 
18, 1824, a petition was received from Thomas H. 
Perkins, Esq., and other residents, who desired that 
Park Street should be widened. And later a com- 
mittee reported that they had "examined the lower 
end of Park Street, and found it to be a dangerous 
corner for carriages or sleighs, especially in winter." 
And they respectfully reported that "if the propri- 
etors of estates bounding on said Park Street will 
relay their sidewalks, and place them upon a regular 
line of ascent from said Park Street to Beacon Street, 
it will be expedient for the City to repair said street 
upon the McAdam principle." 

Bliss Perry, A.M., LL.D., a former editor of the 
"Atlantic Monthly," thus wrote in "Park Street 
Papers," 1908: "And what and where is Park Street.^^ 
It is a short, sloping, prosperous little highway, in 
what Rufus Choate called *our denationalized Boston 
Town.* It begins at Park Street Church, on Brim- 
stone Corner. Thence it climbs leisurely westward 
toward the Shaw Memorial and the State House for 
twenty rods or so, and ends at the George Ticknor 

28 



PARK STREET 

house on the corner of Beacon. The street is bor- 
dered on the south by the Common; and its solid- 
built, sunward-fronting houses have something of a 
holiday air; perhaps because the green, outdoor world 
lies just at their feet. They are mostly given over, 
in these latter days, to trade. The habitual passer is 
conscious of a pleasant blend of book-shops, flowers, 
prints, silver-ware, Scotch suitings, more books, more 
prints, a Club or two, a Persian rug, — and then 
Park Street is behind him. . . . Sunny windows look 
down upon the mild activities of the roadway below; 
to the left upon the black lines of people streaming in 
and out of the Subway; and in front toward the 
Common with its Frog Pond gleaming through the 
elms." 

In June, 1808, the Selectmen authorized the con- 
struction of a paved gutter along Park Street, "to 
prevent the wash from the upper streets doing dam- 
age to the Common." 

In 1824 Mayor Josiah Quincy, the elder, some- 
times called "the Great Mayor," caused the removal 
of a row of unsightly poplar trees, which then lined 
Park Street Mall. And with his own hands he is 
said to have planted American elms in their stead. 
The latter grew to stately proportions. Within a few 
years, however, many of these beautiful elms have 
had to yield to the ravages of age, ice-storms, moths 
and beetles. 

Park Street Mall was formerly called the "Little 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

Mall," to distinguish it from the "Great Mall," 
alongside Tremont Street. 

About sixty years ago an old blind man kept a 
movable cigar-stand on the Common, near the mas- 
sive granite gate-posts, which then stood at the lower 
corner of Park Street. Here could be bought so- 
called cinnamon cigars, that had a seductive, spicy 
flavor, that probably yet lingers in the memory of a 
good many "Old Boston Boys." This same corner 
has become a favorite rendezvous for pigeons, whose 
numbers seem to increase each year. They are all 
plump and sleek, and seem to be on excellent terms 
with the multitude of people who patronize the sub- 
way route. Any attempt to molest them, or the very 
tame grey squirrel habitues of the Common, would 
offend public sentiment; and the pigeons and squir- 
rels appear to be fully aware of this fact. 

Tremont Street Mall, between Park and West 
Streets, presented a lively scene on Election Days 
during the early years of the nineteenth century. 
For, alongside the old wooden fence, which then bor- 
dered the Common, were to be seen long rows of 
stands and push-carts, whose proprietors offered for 
sale divers kinds of refreshments, of varied degrees 
of indigestibility. Among these delectable foodstuffs 
were lobsters, oysters, doughnuts, cookies, waffles, 
buns, seedcakes, candy, baked beans, hot brown 
bread, ginger beer, lemonade, and spruce beer. Some 
of the venders were colored women, who wore bright- 

30 



PARK STREET 

hued bandannas around their heads, after the South- 
ern fashion.^ Mr. Edward Stan wood, in his article 
on the "Topography and Landmarks of the Last 
Hundred Years," ^ remarks that although all the 
buildings on Beacon Hill, including those on Park 
Street, are comparatively modern, there exists abun- 
dant material wherewith sketches may be drawn of 
famous buildings in that region, and of the people 
who have lived in them. Here resided many men and 
women who have been leaders in the social and lit- 
erary life of the City. Here too lived numbers of the 
prominent merchants, lawyers, and men of affairs, 
who were active in promoting the welfare and devel- 
opment of the community. 

The vicissitudes of Boston's winter climate are 
well known. In the mild winter of 1843, according to 
a recent statement by the editor of the "Nomad's" 
column in the "Transcript," "ground-hogs were 
rampant all over Beacon Hill and the Common; 
not having denned up at all; and the only snow of 
that year was in June." Whereas on New Year's 
Day, 1864, milk froze in its pitchers on breakfast- 
tables, and thermometers in the vicinity of Park 
Street Corner registered sensational figures below 
zero! 

* Samuel Barker, Boston Common. 

* The Memorial History of Boston, 



THE ALMSHOUSE 

Captain Robert Keayne, a philanthropic citizen, 
and founder of the " Military Company of the Mas- 
sachusetts," afterward known as the "Ancient and 
Honorable Artillery Company," bequeathed to the 
Town the sum of one hundred and twenty pounds 
sterling for the purpose of erecting an Almshouse. 
Other bequests of one hundred pounds and forty 
pounds, to be devoted to this object, were made by 
Mr. Henry Webb, a public-spirited merchant, and 
Deacon Henry Bridgham, a tanner. At a Town 
Meeting, March 31, 1662, it was voted that these 
legacies be received, and that the Town proceed " to 
agree and compound with severall workemen for 
stones and timber for the erecting and finishing of 
the Allmehouse." 

Frequent allusions to this Institution are to be 
found in the Selectmen's Records. For example, a 
woman named Elinor Reed is mentioned as having 
been entertained there in August, 1708. The first 
Board of Overseers of the Poor was elected in 1691; 
and from an early date its members were accustomed 
to make periodical visits to all parts of the Town, 
sometimes at night. They were accompanied on 
these occasions by other officials, and it was a part 
of their duty to observe carefully economic condi- 



THE ALMSHOUSE 

tions among the poorer inhabitants. It devolved 
upon the constables to report cases of idleness and 
thriftlessness. 

In Bennett's "Manuscript History of New Eng- 
land," 1740, the author stated that the Boston au- 
thorities provided very well for their poor, and were 
very tender of exposing those that had lived in a 
handsome manner. "And for the meaner sort," he 
wrote, "they have a place built on purpose, which ia 
called the Town Alms-house, where they are kepi 
in a decent manner. . . . There are above a hundred 
poor persons in this house, and there is no such thing 
to be seen in town as a strolling beggar. And it is a 
rare thing to meet with any drunken people, or to 
hear an oath sworn in the streets." This first alms- 
house was built in 1662 at or near the corner of 
Beacon and Park Streets. It was burned down in 
1682, and a new structure was erected four years 
after at the head of Park Street, where stands the 
large, brick building known as the Amory-Ticknor 
house. The second almshouse, of two stories, with a 
gambrel roof, fronted on Beacon Street. For some 
years this was the most pretentious, if not the only 
building on that thoroughfare, whereof the easterly 
portion, from School Street to the site of the present 
State House, was laid out in March, 1640. It was offi- 
cially described in 1708 as "the way leading from 
Mrs. Whetcomb's Corner, by the house of Captain 
Fairweather, westerly through the upper side of the 

33 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

Common, and so down to the sea." In a Deed of the 
year 1750, Beacon Street is mentioned as the Lane 
leading to the Almshouse." In 1702 Francis Thresher 
was appointed "to take care in getting the Aims- 
House yard. Burying Place and Pound well fenced 
in and the Almes or Work House repaired; and to 
procure some Spinning Wheeles for setting the poor 
at work." Although originally intended solely as a 
home for the deserving poor, the Almshouse was 
afterward used also as a place of confinement for 
criminals and vagrants, until the erection of a House 
of Correction or Bridewell on the adjoining lot in 
the early part of the eighteenth century. At a 
Town Meeting, March 9, 1713, one of the Articles 
of the Warrant read as follows: *'to see whether 
the Almshouse ought not to be restored to it's prim- 
itive and pious design, even for the relief of the ne- 
cessitous, that they might lead a quiet, peaceable and 
godly life there; whereas 't is now made a Bridewell 
and House of Correction, which obstructs many hon- 
est, poor people from going there." In 1729 there 
were eighty-eight inmates, the majority being stran- 
gers; and only one third "town born" children. 
The Almshouse, as well as the adjoining Workhouse, 
was used for the reception of British soldiers who 
were wounded at the Battle of Bunker Hill. 

During the strenuous years of the Revolutionary 
War, the occupants of the Almshouse were left at 
times in a deplorable condition. In April, 1781, the 

34 



THE ALMSHOUSE 

Overseers of the Poor "represented in a most af- 
fecting manner the suffering and almost perishing 
circumstances of the poor in the Almshouse, and the 
necessity of an immediate and adequate supply of 
money to provide for their support." A year later the 
Overseers reported that they were sorry to be under 
the disagreeable necessity of informing the Town 
regarding the unhappy situation of the Almshouse 
inmates, for want of the necessaries of life. In 1790 
the building had nearly three hundred occupants; 
and a committee reported that the Boston estab- 
lishment was probably the only Institution of its 
kind where persons of every class were lodged under 
the same roof. At a Town Meeting, May 25, 1795, 
Messrs. Thomas Dawes, Samuel Brown, and George 
Richards Minot were appointed agents for and in 
behalf of the inhabitants of Boston, "to sell at public 
auction all that parcel of land occupied for an Alms- 
house and Workhouse, and for other purposes, ex- 
tending from Common to Beacon Streets." 

It was voted, moreover, to erect at Barton's Point, 
on the north side of Leverett Street, a more commo- 
dious structure; and the new Almshouse was com- 
pleted and occupied at the close of the year 1800. 

"No More," wrote Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, in his 
''Historical Description of Boston," "will the staid 
townsman or the jocund youth, proceeding to the 
Common on Election or Independence Days, be in- 
terrupted by the diminutive hands thrust through 

35 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

the holes in the Almshouse fence, or stretched from 
beneath the gates; or by the small and forlorn voices 
of the children of the destitute inmates, entreating 
for money. Nor will the cries of the wretched poor 
in those miserable habitations be heard calling for 
bread, which oftentimes the Town had not to give.'* 



THE TOWN POUND 

At a meeting of the townspeople, held February 23, 
1634, it was ordered that "there shall be a little house 
built, and a sufficiently payled yard, to lodge the 
Cattel in of nights, at Pullen Poynt Necke" (in the 
present township of Winthrop). This was the first 
Town Pound. In May, 1637, Richard Fairbanks was 
appointed foldkeeper, and was allowed threepence 
for every trespassing beast or horse that he brought 
in to the Fold or Pound ; and twopence for every tres- 
passing calf, goat, or hog so brought in. In the year 
1641 it was ordered that the owners of any goats 
** found without a keep, should be fined half a bushel 
of corn for each goat so found; and three-pence for 
pounding, where they are to remain 24 hours, namely, 
in the pound; and if not owned by that time, then to 
be sent to Deare Island, where they are to remain 
until they have given full satisfaction." In April, 
1708, George Ripley and Edward Bartles were given 
authority to impound any horses, cattle, or sheep 
which might be found going at large or feeding upon 
the common land or lanes of the Town. 

In an ''Historic Sketch of the Granary Burying- 
Ground," it is stated that a Pound was built therein, 
near the present Tremont Building, and just back of 
its southern projection. By a vote passed, August 19, 

37 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

1720, the Pound was established on a lot just below 
the site of the Bridewell, on Gentry Street, adjacent 
to the northern line of the Burial Ground. In a cor- 
ner of the latter enclosure the "Town bulls" were 
quartered.^ 

In April, 1703, George Ripley was appointed "to 
take care of watering the bulls, and to put them by 
night in the Burrying Place." In April, 1777, com- 
plaint having been made to the Selectmen that horses 
were allowed to roam at large on the common land, 
public notice was given that all horses found there- 
after upon said land, would be placed in the Town 
Pound, near the Granary. 

* Boston City Document No. 47. 



THE BRIDEWELL 

In May, 1714, the townspeople decided to provide 
forthwith a House of Correction, for the accommo- 
dation of able-bodied persons, who were unwilling to 
work; the Almshouse never having been intended for 
the entertainment of such scandalous persons." No 
action was taken, however, until 1820, when it was 
voted that the Selectmen, Overseers of the Poor, and 
the Town Treasurer be authorized to erect a House of 
Correction. In their report to the townspeople, Feb- 
ruary 13, 1720, this committee recommended as a site 
for the new building the lot adjacent to and below 
the Almshouse; which lot they described as extending 
from the upper part of the Burying-Ground north- 
ward; and fronting westward toward the west side of 
the Almshouse. The new building was about fifty 
feet long, and twenty feet wide, with a stud of four- 
teen feet. It contained a common or middle room, 
whereof one end was for the accommodation of men, 
and "t'other for women." The new Bridewell was a 
brick structure, its walls being "two brick thick," 
and its cost was about three hundred and fifty pounds 
sterling. The committee recommended that the 
Keeper of the Workhouse should be appointed Mas- 
ter of the House of Correction; and that "a whipper" 
should be in constant attendance, subject to the Mas- 

39 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

ter's order. These suggestions were duly approved 
and adopted by the Town. The site of the Bridewell 
corresponded in part with the present Union Club- 
House lot. In May, 1741, a parcel of the Common 
Land, adjoining the Almshouse, was granted, whereon 
a new brick building, ninety feet long, was set up for 
the benefit of the Poor. 



THE WORKHOUSE 

In 1736 the Massachusetts General Court passed an 
Act whereby the Town of Boston was authorized to 
build a Workhouse for the accommodation of idle and 
vagabond persons, rogues, and tramps. This was 
done in 1738, the expense being met by popular sub- 
scription. The new building adjoined the Bridewell, 
and extended, partly in front of the latter, down the 
incline, facing the Common. Its lower portion abut- 
ted on the western border of the Burying-Ground, 
and reached to the northern line of the present Park 
Street Church lot, where the Granary then stood. 
The Workhouse was a well-proportioned, brick build- 
ing, having two stories and a gabled roof. Its length 
was about one hundred and twenty-five feet, and it 
contained a large common Hall.^ 

In October, 1739, certain rules were adopted for 
the management of the Institution. It was ordered 
that " the Mistress take care that the victuals be well 
and seasonably dressed; the bread and beer prepared 
according to the direction of the Overseers; that the 
rooms be swept, and the beds made every day; and 
that the people be kept clean and neat in their ap- 

* The location of the Almshouse and Bridewell is shown in a sketch, 
idealized from Bonner's Map (Edition of 1743) and from a study of 
the Surveys of the City Engineer's OflSce. This sketch is in the posses- 
sion of Dr. James B. Ayer. 

41 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

parel. It was also specified that the common work of 
the House should consist in picking oakum, and that 
such of the women as were capable, should be em- 
ployed in carding and spinning wool, flax and yarn; 
also cotton yarn for candlewick; knitting, sewing, 
etc." The inmates were forbidden to smoke tobacco 
in their beds, on penalty of being denied smoking for 
one week. 

It appears that the Workhouse was used as a Hos- 
pital for British soldiers during the period between 
the Battle of Bunker Hill and their departure from 
Boston in March, 1776. This fact is evident from the 
following deposition. Whether the large quantity of 
arsenic therein mentioned was left in the Workhouse 
with sinister intent or otherwise, is a matter of con- 
jecture. 

I, John Warren, of Cambridge, Physician, testify and 
say that on or about the twenty -ninth day of March, last 
past, I went into the Work House of the Town of Boston, 
lately improved as an Hospital by the British Troops sta- 
tioned in said Town; and upon examining iato the State 
of a large quantity of Medicine there by them left; partic- 
ularly in one Room, supposed to have been by them used 
as a Medicinal Store Room; I found a great variety of 
medicinal articles laying upon the Floor, some of which 
were contained in Papers, while others were scattered upon 
the floor, loose. Amongst these I observed small quanti- 
ties of what I supposed to be arsenic; and then received 
Information from Doctor Daniel Scott, that he had taken 
up a large quantity of said arsenic in large lumps, and 
secured it in a Vessel. Upon receiving this Information, 



THE WORKHOUSE 

I desired him to let me view the arsenic; with which he 
complied; and I judged it to amount to about the Quan- 
tity of twelve or fourteen pounds. Being much surprised 
by this extraordinary Intelligence, I more minutely ex- 
amined the Articles on the Floor, and found them to be 
chiefly capital Articles, and those most generally in de- 
mand. And judging them to be rendered intirely [sic] 
unfit for use, advised Scott to let them remain, and by no 
means to meddle with them, as I thought the utmost 
Hazard would attend Using of them. They were ac- 
cordingly suffered to remain, and no account was taken 
of them. 

John Warren 
Colony of the Massachusetts Bay. Watertown ss. 
April 3d. 1776. 

Then Dr. John Warren made solemn oath to the 
truth of the above written deposition: 

Before me 

James Otis 
" a Justice of the Peace throughout the Colony 



The French traveller, Brissot de Warville, who 
visited Boston in 1788, wrote that "the W^orkhouse 
was not so peopled as one might expect. In a rising 
country, where provisions are cheap, good morals 
predominate, and the number of thieves and vaga- 
bonds is small. There are vermin attached to misery, 
and there is no misery here." 

At a Town Meeting, March 12, 1821, a Committee 
was chosen to consider and report upon the subject 

43 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

of "Pauperism at large.'* From the investigations of 
this Committee it was learned that the buildings on 
Park Street, formerly belonging to the Town, "con- 
sisted of two ranges, one of which was used as an Alms 
House, for the reception of persons whom it became 
a duty of charity to relieve from distress; and the 
other as a Work House, where disorderly and disso- 
lute people were restrained of their liberty, and com- 
pelled to work for their support." Between these two 
buildings there was a smaller one, called a Bridewell, 
with grated cells. This served as a House of Correc- 
tion, for the confinement of such persons as were not 
amenable to milder treatment. These several Insti- 
tutions were intended for the accommodation of all 
classes of the poor. But a distinction, previously 
neglected, was made between the virtuous and vicious. 
Enlightened public opinion demanded that innocent 
unfortunates should not be regarded as criminals, nor 
confined in the same institution with law-breakers. 
In the latter class the Town Records designate vag- 
abonds, pilferers, beggars, night-prowlers, wantons, 
stubborn children, wandering fortune-tellers, and 
other individuals whose freedom from restraint was 
deemed a menace to the public welfare. As early as 
1662 authority was given magistrates to cause the 
arrest of idle vagrants, and to confine them in a House 
of Correction. 



THE PUBLIC GRANARY 

In April, 1728, the Town voted that "a Grainerj^ be 
built on the Common, near the Almshouse "; and that 
a sum not exceeding eleven hundred pounds sterling 
be appropriated therefor. The location of this build- 
ing was a little to the north of the Park Street Subway 
entrance. In the year 1737, "to accommodate the 
Workhouse, and to make the Appearance or Prospect 
the better," the Granary was removed to the corner 
of Long Acre Street, where the Park Street Church 
now stands. The Granary was the most roomy edifice 
in the Town, occupying an area of twenty-four hun- 
dred square feet. It was built of wood, with oaken 
rafters, and had a storing capacity for twelve thou- 
sand bushels of grain, chiefly wheat, rye, and Indian 
corn. It was a prominent landmark in Boston, and 
gave its name to the adjacent Burying-Ground. At a 
meeting of the Selectmen, August 2, 1738, it was re- 
ported that "the tar under the Granary heats the 
grain that lies on the lower floor, and damnifies it; 
also that weevils have taken the corn, and mice annoy 
the corn much, being very numerous." The chief 
function of the Granary was its service as a reposi- 
tory, where the poor might buy grain in small quan- 
tities at a slight advance over its cost. In 1795 it was 
decided to sell the building; but for some years there- 

45 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

after it was occupied by various tradespeople, and 
portions of it were devoted to the sale of refreshments, 
and to the storage of second-hand furniture. Finally 
in 1809 the Granary was removed to Commercial 
Point, Dorchester, where it was reconstructed and 
used as a tavern. The sails for the famous frigate 
Constitution (which was launched in October, 1797, 
at Hart's Ship Yard, now Constitution Wharf) were 
made in the Granary, which was the only available 
building large enough for the purpose. 



THE GRANARY BURYING-GROUND 

Occupies land taken in 1660 from the Common, 
which formerly extended northeasterly as far as the 
present Tremont Building. It was the third Ceme- 
tery in Boston, and was originally called the South 
Burying-Ground; afterward the Central or Middle 
Burying-Ground. Its present name dates from 1737. 
In April, 1719, the Town ordered that "the South 
Burying Place should be enlarged next the Common 
or Training Field." This may account for the finding 
of some tombstones and human bones when excava- 
tions were made for the foundation of a drinking- 
fountain at the foot of Park Street Mall, where a 
memorial tablet now stands, about the middle of the 
nineteenth century. No fence separated the burial 
enclosure from the Common until 1739, when the 
Town ordered that one should be set up between 
Common and Beacon Streets. It consisted of a row 
of posts surmounted by a rail, and was placed there 
"in order to prevent carts etc. from passing upon 
and through the Common, and spoiling the herbage 
thereof." In the Town Records, 1759, the enclosure 
was mentioned as "the South Burial Ground, on the 
back of the Work House." This hallowed ground is 
the resting-place of many famous personages, includ- 
ing Edward Rawson, who served as Secretary of the 

47 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

Colony for thirty-six years; his contemporary, John 
Hull, the celebrated mint master, and the latter's 
son-in-law, Chief Justice Samuel Sewall. 

Here repose also the patriots, John Hancock and 
Samuel Adams, besides many of the earlier Governors 
of^Massachusetts; Jonathan Phillips, the first Mayor 
of Boston, and Paul Revere. The oldest epitaph bears 
the date 1666, and is in memory of Elizabeth Neal, 
aged three days. 

The Franklin monument, erected by Benjamin 
Franklin in memory of his parents, had the following 
inscription : 

Josiah Franklin and Abiah his wife. He here interred. 
They lived lovingly together in wedlock fifty -five years; 
and without an estate or any careful employment; by 
constant labor and honest industry, maintained a large 
family comfortably, and brought up thirteen children 
and seven grandchildren respectably. From this instance. 
Reader, be encouraged to diligence in thy calling, and 
distrust not Providence. He was a pious and prudent man; 
she a virtuous woman. Their youngest son, in filial re- 
gard to their memory, places this stone. J. F. Born, 
1655. Died, 1744. Aet. 89. A. F. Born, 1667. Died, 
1752. 

Aet. 85. 

The original inscription having been nearly obliterated, 
a number of citizens erected this monument as a mark of 
respect for the illustrious author, mdcccxxvii.^ 



^ To Dr. J. C. Warren belongs the credit of raising funds for this object. 
The granite blocks were quarried from Bunker Hill ledge, and the obelisk 

48 



THE GRANARY BURYING-GROUND 

Within this enclosure two hundred and sixty-six Rev- 
olutionary soldiers were buried. Here also is the resting- 
place of seventeen members of the Boston Tea Party. 

Perhaps the most curious epitaph is that of Mary 
Brackett, who died in 1679 : 

"* Under these clods a pretious gemm ly(es) hear, 
Belov'd of God, & of her husband dear; 
Pius and prudent, helpful to neighbors all; 
By day and night, whenever they did call. 
Pelican like she freely spilt her blood, 
To feed her chickens, and to do them good.'* 

The stone wall and tall iron fence along the Tre- 
mont Street side were erected during the adminis- 
tration of Mayor Samuel Turell Armstrong in 1836. 
No trees adorned the enclosure until about the year 
1825; but soon thereafter a considerable number 
were planted, including specimens of the willow, 
larch, maple, bass-wood, and mountain-ash. At 
this time (1919) about forty large and thriving shade 
trees remain. Among them are English elms, horse- 
chestnuts and lindens. The perpetual care of the 
cemetery is assumed by the City authorities; but this 
does not apply to the monuments and tombstones, 
whose oversight devolves upon individuals. There 
have been about 8030 interments during a period of 
two hundred and sixty years. Prominent among the 

was designed by Solomon Willard. The corner-stone was laid June 
27, 1827. 

49 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

many notabilities who here repose are Thomas Fleet, 
the printer and publisher (1685-1758), and his moth- 
er-in-law, Elizabeth Vergoose, who was believed by 
many to have been the original Mother Goose. But 
proof of this is lacking. We have the testimony of 
one of her descendants that she was buried here in 
1759, although no stone bearing her name is now 
standing. 



NUMBER ONE PARK STREET 

On the lower portion of this land (adjoining the Gran- 
ary lot, where the Church now stands) Mr. Isaac P. 
Davis built a four-storied, brick house, which was 
the residence of General Welles from 1805 until 1826. 
In June of the following year his heirs sold the prem- 
ises to Dr. J. C. Warren, and they remained in the 
possession of members of the Warren family for 
about seven years, when Edmund Dwight became 
their owner. He was a native of Springfield, Massa- 
chusetts, and a Yale graduate of 1799. Later he be- 
came a merchant, and was active in business enter- 
prises, especially in the establishment of extensive 
cotton mills in Hampden County, where there are 
superior water-power facilities. Mr. Dwight was 
also a patron of learning, and with others was in- 
strumental in founding Normal Schools in the Bay 
State. In the spring of 1858 the ownership of this 
house passed to Jane, Mary, and Anne Wigglesworth, 
who made it their home for many years. Their 
brother, Thomas Wigglesworth, a prominent business 
man of Boston, also lived there for nearly half a 
century, until his death in March, 1907. This was the 
last house on Park Street to be occupied as a resi- 
dence. 

The emigrant ancestor of the Wigglesworths, of 

51 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

Boston, was Edward, who came over with his wife 
and son, Michael, in the year 1638. He was de- 
scribed as one of those resolute Puritans, who with 
their families found a refuge from religious persecu- 
tion in what was then the New England wilderness. 
Here they had to brave the rigors of a severe winter 
climate with scanty protection; and were moreover 
exposed to danger from hostile Indians. Their son, 
the Reverend Michael Wigglesworth (1631-1705) 
Harvard, 1651, clergyman and poet, stated in his 
*' Reminiscences" that he was the son of "Godly 
parents, who feared the Lord greatly even from their 
youth." But they had lived in an ungodly place, 
where the children had learned wickedness betimes. 
"These Godly parents of mine," he wrote, "meeting 
with oppK)sition and persecution for religion, took up 
resolution to pluck up their stakes, and remove them- 
selves to New England. And the Lord brought them 
hither, and landed them at Charlstown; and me 
along with them, being then a child not full seven 
years old. After about seven weeks' stay at Charls- 
town, my parents removed again by sea to New 
Haven. We dwelt in a cellar, partly under ground, 
covered with earth, the first winter." After gradua- 
tion Michael Wigglesworth served as a Tutor, and 
also as a Fellow of the College for ten years. In the 
meantime he was preparing himself for the ministry, 
and was ordained pastor of a church in Maiden in 
1653. Among his poetical effusions are some verses 

52 




VIEW OF PARK STREET FROM THE STATE HOUSE 

Showing Ticknor House at left and the Sidewalk with 

Trees along the Common Side 



NUMBER ONE PARK STREET 

relating to certain epidemic affections then preva- 
lent. A specimen here follows: "New England, 
where for many years you hardly heard a cough; and 
where Physicians had no work, now finds them work 
enough. Now colds and coughs, rheums and sore 
throats do more and more abound; now agues sore 
and feavers strong in every place are found." The 
Reverend Mr. Wigglesworth was the author of va- 
rious theological treatises, whereof the most noted 
was a poem entitled "The Day of Doom." 

Edward Wigglesworth, a son of Michael (1692- 
1765) Harvard, 1710; S.T.D., 1730, was the first 
Hollis Professor of Divinity of the College, serv- 
ing forty-four years. His son, Edward (1732-94), 
Harvard, 1749; A.M., Yale, 1752, succeeded his 
father as Hollis Professor, and held the position 
twenty-nine years. He was of a scientific turn of 
mind, and in 1775 ventured the prediction that this 
country would have a population of ninety million 
at the close of the nineteenth century. 

Thomas Wigglesworth, the Park Street resident, 
was a merchant, engaged in the Calcutta trade. He 
was short in stature, and an enthusiastic pedestrian, 
who took long walks in the early morning, regard- 
less of weather conditions. He usually wore at such 
times an old-fashioned spencer, or short outer gar- 
ment, over a swallow-tailed coat. 

Mr. Wigglesworth was an energetic man, and "a 
model of mercantile integrity." He was wont to de- 

53 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

clare that he would maintain his residence adjoining 
Park Street Church to the last, even if the whole 
City of Boston were offered him in exchange therefor! 
Although his life was quiet and uneventful, and he 
never held any public office, his good judgment and 
ability in the management of important business 
transactions were well known and appreciated. 
*'Park Street," wrote a correspondent in July, 1895, 
*'once the site of princely residences of aristocratic 
Bostonians, has been so far given up to business 
purposes and club-houses, that now only one dwell- 
ing remains, a modest, brick structure, bearing upon 
the old-fashioned door-plate the inscription 'T. Wig- 
glesworth.' " 



NUMBER TWO PARK STREET 

On March 24, 1801, the Town sold the lot adjoining 
the Granary, measuring seventy-eight feet on Gentry 
(now Park) Street, to General Welles, whose wife, 
Elizabeth, was a daughter of General Joseph Warren. 
The new owner soon after conveyed the northerly 
half to Isaac P. Davis, rope-maker, who built thereon 
a brick dwelling-house,, which he very soon sold to 
Francis C. Lowell. The latter, after finishing it off, 
transferred it to Jonathan Mason, whose daughter 
was the wife of Dr. John C. Warren, its first inhab- 
itant. "The new owner at once allowed the young 
couple to occupy the house, and thither they re- 
moved in the month of October, 1805. There they 
continued to dwell until Mr. Mason's death, when it 
was found that he had left the estate to his daughter, 
Mrs. Warren. After the decease of the latter, it 
came to her children by descent; as she left no will; 
and Dr. Warren, their father, bought their resj>ec- 
tive interests, thus becoming the owner thereof ab- 
solutely. At his death he bequeathed the * mansion- 
house in Park Street, valued at forty thousand dol- 
lars,' to his son. Mason, in fee simple; from whom it 
ultimately passed by his will to Mrs. Warren for life, 
with remainder to his children." The house re- 
mained unchanged until the spring of 1877, when it 

55 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

was taken down, and shortly after replaced by the 
present Warren Building. 

A somewhat minute description of this house is 
given in a "Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, 
M.D.," by Howard Payson Arnold, 1886. The office 
or study, on the left of the main entrance, was de- 
scribed as a fairly spacious room, with an air of an- 
cient and prosperous dignity. Beneath this office 
was a place of retirement for students. This apart- 
ment was devoted to medical and surgical work, and 
the compounding of drugs. "From the back win- 
dows of the house one overlooked the Burying- 
Ground, and the rears of all the other dwellings 
which surrounded it. Passing to the front of the 
edifice, one was impressed with a prompt and strik- 
ing contrast. The parlors at the head of one flight of 
stairs, and the two chambers above them, overlooked 
the Common, sloping in a gentle and verdurous 
expanse to the water, which then lapped its lower 
boundary." The writer dwells further upon the 
beauty of the western view from Dr. Warren's win- 
dows. The Great Elm and Flagstaff Hill were promi- 
nent features of the landscape; and in the distance 
the Blue Hills of Milton. 

In the early days of Christian Science, meetings 
were held at the houses of different Church members. 
Hawthorne Hall, at Number Two Park Street, with a 
seating capacity of two hundred and twenty-five, was 
the scene of the first public meeting, in November, 

56 



NUMBER TWO PARK STREET 

1883; and that Hall has therefore been appropriately 
called the cradle of the Christian Science Church. 
The following Notice dates from that period: "The 
Church of Christ respectfully invites you to attend 
their Services at number two Park Street, Hawthorne 
Hall, every Sunday at 3 p.m.; and learn how to heal 
the sick with Christianity. Mrs. Eddy teaches 
Metaphysical Healing at 551 Shawmut Avenue, 
Boston. Many certificates could be given of the 
sick, healed by her lectures." The last service at 
Hawthorne Hall was held, October 18, 1885. Mrs. 
Eddy herself was accustomed to preach at the Park 
Street Services, "and was always effective on the 
rostrum." ^ 

A copy of the Notice given above may be seen at 
the book-store of Messrs. Smith & McCance, on the 
site of Hawthorne Hall. 

* The Life of Mary Baker Eddy, 



NUMBER THREE PARK STREET 

Peter Chardon Brooks, a distinguished merchant 
and philanthropist, of Boston, appears to have been 
the first owner of this property. He was a son of Ed- 
ward Brooks, A.M., of Medford. Beginning business 
as an insurance broker, he became President of the 
New England Insurance Company. After holding 
this position for several years, he retired. IVIr. Brooks 
was also President of the Massachusetts Hospital 
Life Insurance Company, and a member of the State 
Senate. In later life he was active in charitable work. 

The estate passed from Mr. Brooks to Jonathan 
Davis, merchant, November 10, 1802; and the latter 
sold it, April 25, 1804, to George Cabot, Esq., being 
"a lot of land on Centry Street, now Park Street, 
near the Common or Mall in Boston." Mr. Cabot 
was a leader of the Federalist Party; he served one 
year as Secretary of the Navy during the Revolu- 
tionary War, and afterward five years as United 
States Senator. He was one of a group of prominent 
men who contributed political articles to the Boston 
newspapers of those days; his communications ap- 
pearing in the columns of the "Columbian Centinel.'* 

In April, 1809, Richard Sullivan, Esq. (1779-1861), 
paid Mr. Cabot sixteen thousand dollars, and became 
owner of the premises. Mr. Sullivan was a grandson 

58 



NUMBER THREE PARK STREET 

of John Sullivan, of Limerick, Ireland; and a son of 
James, who was Attorney-General of the Bay State 
in 1790. Richard Sullivan was a native of Groton, 
and a member of the Harvard Class of 1798. He 
served as an Overseer of the College for thirty-two 
years. He was admitted to the Bar in July, 1801; 
but having an independent fortune, did not continue 
long in the practice of law. During the War of 1812 
he was second in command of a cavalry troop, called 
the Hussars, formed by the Honorable Josiah Quincy, 
the elder. The troop was well mounted, and their 
uniforms were brilliant and effective. The members 
were thoroughly drilled, and being under strict disci- 
pline, they made an imposing display." Their dress 
included a short overcoat or spencer, which was left 
unbuttoned and thrown back, revealing a gorgeous 
vest; and their headgear consisted of a square- topped 
hat, with tassels and a plume. During the political 
campaign of 1807, when James Sullivan was a candi- 
date for Governor, an article appeared in the 'Cen- 
tinel" reflecting upon his character. Thereupon his 
son, Richard, waylaid the editor, Benjamin Russell, 
on the street, and struck him with a cane.^ 

On October 4, 1816, Mr. Sullivan transferred the 
title of his Park Street estate to Lydia, the wife of 
Thomas Wren Ward, a well-known merchant; and 
here the Wards made their residence for many years. 

Mr. Ward was the Boston agent of Messrs. Baring 

* S. A. Drake, Historic Landmarks. 

59 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

Brothers & Company, of London. The following cor- 
respondence explains itself: 

3 Park Street, Boston, September 16, 1852 

The Hon. Daniel Webster, 

Dear Sir, Mr. Thomas Baring will dine with me on 
Monday next at five o'clock, with some of your friends 
and his; and we shall be honored and obliged by the pleas- 
ure of your company. 

I am, dear Sir, with the greatest respect. 

Yours 

T. W. Ward 

Mr. Webster replied as follows: 

Green Harbor, Marshfield, September 17, 1852 

It would give me sincere pleasure, my dear Mr. Ward, 
to dine with you on Monday, and to meet Mr. Baring. 
. . . But I am stationed here by my Commander, Doctor 
Jeffries, in the recruiting service; and he bids me not to 
leave my post until 1 receive his official permission. 
Always very truly yours 

Daniel Webster 

Mr. Webster did visit Boston on the day of the 
Dinner, and he appeared at Mr. Ward's table during 
the dessert course, remaining but a short time. The 
next morning he returned to Marshfield. His death 
occurred there October 24, 1852. About two years 
before, Mr. W^ebster had written from W^ashington, 
D.C., to his farmer, Porter Wright, directing him to 
send Dr. J. C. Warren, Mr. Ward's next-door neigh- 

60 



NUMBER THREE PARK STREET 

bor, "six selected ears of our, corn. If you have any 
with husks on, braid them up handsomely." ^ 

On March 12, 1863, Mrs. Ward conveyed the prop- 
erty to Augustine Heard, of Ipswich, a well-known 
merchant; and on November 30, 1895, the premises 
were sold at auction, under foreclosure of a mortgage, 
to John Duff, the highest bidder, for sixty-seven 
thousand dollars. The latter's heirs retained the es- 
tate until May 31, 1916, when it was bought by the 
Warren Institution for Savings. The dwelling-house, 
built in 1804, was razed, and the present handsome 
structure erected. 

1 The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster. Edited by Fletcher 
Webster. 



NUMBER FOUR PARK STREET 

One of the first owners of this lot was Jonathan Davis, 
who bought it of Peter C. Brooks, November 10, 
1802, for $6692.53. Next came Samuel Ridgway 
Miller, who lived there from 1821 to 1840. His only 
daughter, Mary Jane, became the wife of the Hon- 
orable Josiah Quincy, the younger, who made his 
home there for many years. The property remains in 
the possession of the Quincy family. Mr. Miller was 
an original subscriber to the stock of the Suffolk Na- 
tional Bank in 1818. He was reckoned among "the 
most influential Boston men of the day," and was en- 
gaged in the importation of British dry goods, as a 
member of the firm of Gore, Miller & Parker. 

Since the year 1880 the firm of Houghton MiflBin 
Company, incorporated in 1908, has occupied as ten- 
ant three stories of this building. Here are the head- 
quarters of the main branches of its business, includ- 
ing the Publishing, Educational, Advertising, Edito- 
rial, and Subscription Departments. The Printing 
Department remains, as for many years, at The Riv- 
erside Press in Cambridge. 

For many years the "Atlantic Monthly," most 
prominent among the literary periodicals of America, 
maintained its offices here. "Even within the sub- 
stantial walls of Number Four," wrote Professor 



NUMBER FOUR PARK STREET 

Bliss Perry, one of the "Atlantic's" former editors, 
in "Park Street Papers, " "built as it was for a family 
mansion, and long identified with a widely honored 
name, the magazine used to flit upstairs and down, 
like a restless guest. Mr. Howells's tiny sanctum was 
on the second floor, and many a delighted caller re- 
members that third-floor back room, looking out upon 
the Burying-Ground, where Mr. Aldrich was wont to 
mitigate the severity of his position with an Irish 
setter and a pipe. The 'Atlantic' loves the memory 
of the gentlemen and scholars, and men of letters, who 
once frequented Park Street. It was more happily 
housed in the ancient Quincy mansion than in any 
tall office building of Gath or Askalon." ^ 

A John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel. 1681. 



NUMBER FIVE PARK STREET 

The Site of the Town Pound 

This lot was bought by John Gore in September, 
1802. The grantor was Thomas H. Perkins, and the 
price paid was $6360. It is probable that Mr. Gore 
built the house which was soon after erected on the 
premises. According to the Boston Directories, he 
lived there from 1805 to 1816; and his widow, Mary 
Gore, occupied the house until 1826. In 1843 the es- 
tate became the property of Francis C. Gray, whose 
residence it was for eleven years. 

Francis Galley Gray (1790-1856), Harvard, 1809; 
LL.D., 1841, a son of Lieutenant-Governor William 
Gray, was a native of Salem, Massachusetts. Soon 
after leaving college he accompanied John Quincy 
Adams (then Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and 
Oratory at Harvard, and afterward President of the 
United States) on his mission to Russia, in the capac- 
ity of private secretary. Mr. Gray studied law, and 
was admitted to the Bar; but he never practised. He 
was described as a Gentleman and Man of Letters; 
**an elegant and accomplished writer, and an honored 
son of Harvard, who requited his Alma Mater for her 
nurturing care by his literary and political labors and 
laurels." He was much engrossed in antiquarian and 
historical research. Mr. Gray bequeathed fifty thou- 

64 



NUMBER FIVE PARK STREET 

sand dollars for the establishment and maintenance 
of a Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge. 
He also left the College a collection of rare engravings. 

The estate descended to his nephew, William Gray, 
who sold it in February, 1857, to the Honorable 
Josiah Quincy, Senior (1772-1864), who lived there 
several years. His mother, whose maiden name was 
Abigail Phillips, was a woman of decided character, 
who had, moreover, very positive opinions on matters 
relating to hygiene and methods of promoting bodily 
vigor. It is said that when her son was hardly more 
than an infant, she was accustomed to have him 
taken from his bed every morning in all seasons, into 
a basement kitchen, where he was thrice dipped in a 
tub of cold water. ^ 

Mr. Quincy was educated at Phillips Academy, 
Andover, and at Harvard (A.B., 1790; LL.D,, 1824). 
He served as a member of Congress, 1805-13, and as 
Mayor of Boston, 1823-29. During his administra- 
tion the Fire Department was reorganized, and effi- 
cient street-cleaning methods were introduced. The 
Quincy Market was built under his supervision. Mr. 
Quincy was one of the first among Boston men "to 
denounce the slave-holding interest as a dangerous 
and rising tyranny." He was President of Harvard 
College from 1829 to 1845, and wrote a History of the 
College. His innate modesty was shown by the fact 
that his own name hardly appears in that work. 

I Mayors of Boston. Issued by the State Street Trust Company, 1914. 

65 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

During his term of service in Congress, as a mem- 
ber of the Federalist Party, he was a consistent oppo- 
nent of the measures of the Administration; and his 
ready wit and keen satire in debate were sources of 
annoyance to his Democratic fellow members. He 
was a lifelong opposer of slavery; and during the Civil 
War, at the age of ninety-one, he made an eloquent 
speech in support of the Union. During political 
campaigns, when party feeling ran high, he was lam- 
pooned and caricatured by his adversaries. In one 
cartoon he was styled "Josiah the First," and wore 
upon his breast a symbol representing crossed cod- 
fishes, in reference to his unwavering defence of the 
fisheries of New England. Mr. Quincy was always in- 
tensely patriotic. He was, moreover, foremost in pro- 
moting the welfare of his native city; and was indeed 
*'a great public character." 

James Russell Lowell in "My Study Windows," 
relates an anecdote of Mayor Quincy, which he 
characterized as "quite Roman in color." The 
Mayor was once arrested on a malicious charge of 
fast driving, in violation of a City ordinance. He 
might have resisted; but instead he appeared in 
court and paid a fine; because it would serve as a 
good example of the principle that "no citizen was 
above the law." By President Quincy's will, which 
was proved August 29, 1864, his three daughters, 
Eliza Susan, Abby Phillips, and Maria Sophia Quincy, 
became the owners of the estate. His library was 

66 



NUMBER FIVE PARK STREET 

given to the sons, Josiah and Edmund, with the 
proviso that the books should remain in the Park 
Street house during the lifetime of his daughters, or 
of any one of them; and, further, that the sons should 
always have free access to them. Bibliophiles, whose 
pleasure it is to delve amid the musty volumes in 
Mr. Goodspeed's well-known book-shop in the base- 
ment of the former Quincy mansion, may perchance 
be interested to view the old kitchen fireplace, which 
remains intact. The estate is still in the possession of 
the Quincy heirs. 

The Honorable Josiah Quincy, the younger (1802- 
82), a prominent citizen of Boston (Harvard, 1821), 
was Mayor of the City from 1846 to 1848. Salient 
features of his administration were the introduction 
of water from Lake Cochituate, at a cost of five 
million dollars; and the reorganization of the Police 
Department. It was said of Mr. Quincy that "he 
wrote his name in water; yet it will last forever. 
The people of Boston have never found him dry, 
and he has taken care that they shall never be so." 
His knowledge of municipal affairs was said to be 
very thorough; and during his term of office he dis- 
played much of the zeal and ability which were char- 
acteristic of his father, the "Great Mayor." 

The Honorable Josiah Quincy, third of the name, 
was born at Quincy in 1859, and graduated at Har- 
vard in 1880. He was a prominent member of the 
Democratic Party, and held various public offices, 

87 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

having served as First Assistant Secretary of State 
under President Cleveland. Mr. Quincy was elected 
Mayor of Boston in 1895, and served four years. 
An important event of his administration was the 
erection of the South Union Railway Station. He 
was especially interested in the system of baths, 
gymnasia, playgrounds, and other progressive meas- 
ures for the benefit of the people. In later years he 
served as a member of the Boston Transit Com- 
mission. His death occurred in 1919. 



NUMBER SIX PARK STREET 

This lot was sold by the Town, in 1801, to Thomas 
Handasyd Perkins, who resold it in the following 
year to John Gore. The latter built thereon a brick 
dwelling, and the property remained in the posses- 
sion of his descendants for many years. Francis 
Galley Gray became the owner of the estate in 1843; 
and the next year a portion of the lot was bought by 
Dr. John C. Warren, Senior. He built a house, nine- 
teen feet wide, on this land, for his son. Dr. J. Mason 
Warren, who occupied it, with his family, in 1845. 
Here they made their home until 1857, when they 
removed to Number Two Park Street. This latter 
house had been the residence of the elder physician 
for more than half a century. As Dr. J. M. Warren 
had then five children, *'this removal greatly in- 
creased his comfort; and in truth the need of more 
roomy quarters had become imperative. For the 
dwelling at Number Six, although cheerful and con- 
venient both within and without, was but a little 
slice of a house at best." This house was bequeathed 
by Dr. J. G. Warren, Senior, to his son, James Sul- 
livan Warren (Harvard, 1832), who lived there for 
about ten years; and his widow continued to occupy 
it until 1898. 
John Warren, M.D. (1753-1815), Harvard, 1771, 

69 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

was Surgeon to the military hospitals of Boston 
during the Revolutionary War; and Professor of 
Anatomy and Surgery at Harvard for thirty-three 
years. He was a younger brother of Joseph War- 
ren, the eminent physician, Major-General, and pa- 
triot, who was killed at Bunker Hill, at the age of 
thirty-four. John Warren was settled at that time 
in Salem, where he heard the sound of the cannon, 
and saw the smoke and flames of the Charlestown 
conflagration on June 17, 1775. Knowing well the 
courage and boldness of his brother, and that he 
would not hesitate to expose his life in the service 
of his country, John Warren hastened on foot toward 
the battle-field, anxiously seeking tidings of Joseph. 
Pressing forward in haste, when near the scene of 
action he encountered a sentinel, whom he attempted 
to pass; and in so doing he received a bayonet wound, 
whereof he carried the scar through life. Both Jo- 
seph and John Warren were born at the Warren 
homestead farm in Roxbury. A strong attachment 
existed between the brothers. Joseph's twelve 
years of seniority, while it gave him the advan- 
tage of a large experience, was not sufficient to repel 
familiarity; neither was his disposition likely to do 
so. The brothers, warm-hearted, ardent, enthusi- 
astic, and of attractive manners, were closely united 
by patriotic, as well as by professional sympathies.'* ^ 
Dr. John Collins Warren, Senior (1778-1856), a 

* Edward Warren, The Life of John Warren, M.D, 

70 



NUMBER SIX PARK STREET • 

son of the preceding, was for seven years a student at 
the Boston Public Latin School, and graduated at 
Harvard in 1797. After devoting three years to 
medical studies abroad, chiefly in London, Paris, 
and Edinburgh, he returned home, and in 1809 was 
appointed Adjunct Professor of Anatomy in the 
Harvard Medical School. In 1815 he succeeded his 
father as Hersey Professor of Anatomy and Surgery ; 
retaining the position until 1847. "As a surgeon," 
wrote Dr. O. W. Holmes, "Dr. Warren was supreme 
among his fellows, and deservedly so. He performed 
a great number of difficult operations; always de- 
liberate, always cool; with a grim smile in sudden 
emergencies, where weaker men would have looked 
perplexed, and wiped their foreheads. He had the 
stuff in him, which carried his uncle, Joseph War- 
ren, to Bunker Hill, and left him there, slain among 
the last in retreat." Dr. Warren was for seventeen 
years a warden of Saint Paul's Church, Boston. 

Jonathan Mason Warren, son of Dr. John Collins 
Warren, was born at Boston, February 5, 1811, in 
the house, Number Two Park Street, and died there, 
August 19, 1867. He was for a short time a member 
of the Harvard Class of 1830; but was obliged to 
leave college during the Sophomore year owing to 
ill health. He graduated from the Medical School in 
1832, and received the honorary degree of Master of 
Arts in 1844. After more than three years' study in 
Europe, Dr. Warren, following his father's example, 

71 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

entered upon practice in his native city. He married, 
April 30, 1839, Anna Caspar, the youngest daugh- 
ter of Benjamin W. Crowninshield, a member of 
Congress and a former Secretary of the United 
States Navy. Dr. Warren was elected a Visiting 
Surgeon of the Massachusetts General Hospital in 
1848; and in October of that year he "assisted his 
father in the operation which was destined to be 
known as the first public demonstration of surgical 
anaesthesia." "Dr. Warren," wrote his biographer, 
"was equally eminent as surgeon and physician; a 
union seldom encountered; since few are so consti- 
tuted that the qualities needed for success in the one 
calling do not prevent, in a certain degree, distinction 
in the other." 

John Collins Warren (A.B., Harvard, 1863; M.D., 
1866; LL.D., 1906) was born in Pemberton Square, 
Boston, May 4, 1842. His early education was re- 
ceived at the Public Latin School, and at Epes S. 
Dixwell's private school in Boston. After leaving 
the Medical College, he devoted three years to the 
study of surgery in Vienna, Berlin, and Paris. Re- 
turning, he became Instructor in Surgery at Har- 
vard; Assistant Professor, 1882; Associate Professor, 
1887; Professor of Surgery, 1893; Moseley Professor 
of Surgery, 1899; Professor Emeritus, 1907. He has 
been President of the American Surgical Association, 
1896; Harvard Overseer, 1908-14. Dr. Warren was 
largely instrumental in securing liberal donations 

72 



NUMBER SIX PARK STREET 

for the erection of the present magnificent Harvard 
Medical School Buildings. He is the author of 
several works on Surgery. Dr. Warren married, 
May 27, 1873, Miss Amy Shaw, of Boston. John 
Warren, his elder son (Harvard, A.B., 1896; M.D., 
1900), served as Demonstrator of Anatomy 1901- 
08; and since the latter date he has been Associate 
Professor of Anatomy, and University Marshal since 
1911. Joseph Warren, the younger son (Harvard, 
1897; LL.B., 1900), held the ofl5ce of Secretary to 
the Corporation, 1907-10; Instructor in the Law 
School, 1909-13. He is at this time Bemis Professor 
of Law in the University. 

In the upper portion of the house, at Number Six 
Park Street, are the apartments of the Mayflower 
Club, which was founded by Mrs. Charles D. Ho- 
mans and her sister, Mrs. Oliver W\ Peabody. The 
first President was Mrs. J. Elliot Cabot. The need 
of a rendezvous for ladies had long been felt; and this 
was the pioneer Women's Club of this region. At 
the start the Club was fortunate in having rooms 
in the John Amory Lowell house at Number Seven 
Park Street, with its charming view of the Common 
and of the country beyond from its front windows. 
The organization was named after the flower, and 
not after the Pilgrims' vessel. Its rooms were opened 
on Mayflower Day, May 1, 1893. At first the mem- 
bership was limited to three hundred. The object of 
the Club was solely to provide comfort and rest for 

73 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

its members. It was a social Club for women, where 
mental improvement was ignored, and no petitions 
for objects of charity or philanthropy were allowed. 
As the membership increased, more spacious quar- 
ters were needed, and when, in 1896, the house was 
bought by the Union Club, the Mayflower members 
leased apartments in "the Tudor," on the corner of 
Beacon and Joy Streets. Later they removed to 
their present home at Number Six Park Street, which 
was owned at that time by Mrs. J. Sullivan Warren. 
For many years the Club has been under the able 
management of Miss Katharine P. Loring, as Presi- 
dent. 



' NUMBER SEVEN PARK STREET 

In August, 1896, the trustees of the Union Club 
bought the house numbered Seven Park Street, ad- 
joining their Club House. The land whereon this 
building stands was sold by the town agents, March 
24, 1801, to Thomas Handasyd Perkins, a prominent 
merchant and humanitarian. For half a century he 
maintained a fine estate in Brookline, where, under 
the supervision of foreign expert gardeners, he took 
great interest in the cultivation of choice plants, 
fruits, and flowers. Mr. Perkins was the well-known 
founder of the Massachusetts School for the Blind, or 
Perkins Institution. He retained the ownership of the 
Park Street lot for somewhat over a year, and sold 
it in September, 1802, to John Gore, a Boston mer- 
chant. He was of the sixth generation from the emi- 
grant, of the same name, who settled at Roxbury in 
1635, and served for many years as Clerk of the Writs. 
His grandfather, John, of the fourth generation, was 
a merchant and Loyalist refugee, who accompanied 
the British troops to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in March, 
1776. His citizenship was restored by an Act of the 
General Court in 1787. He was the father of thirteen 
children, including Governor Christopher Gore. In a 
Funeral Sermon preached by the Reverend William 
Cooper, pastor of Brattle Street Church, Mr. Gore, 
the refugee, was described as "an ingenious and reli- 

75 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

gious gentleman; an Ornament to his Country, and 
to the College." John Gore, the owner of the Park 
Street estate^ was prominent in financial affairs. He 
was one of the incorporators of the New England 
National Bank, of Boston, in 1813. His only daugh- 
ter, Louisa, married Horatio Greenough, the eminent 
sculptor, and pioneer of the American artists' colony 
in Italy. 

In August, 1811, Mr. Gore sold the property, which 
included a brick stable, to Artemas Ward, Esq. (1762- 
1847), of Boston, a son and namesake of the Revolu- 
tionary General, and a prominent jurist. He was a 
Harvard graduate of 1783; LL.D., 1842; member of 
Congress; and Chief Justice of the Massachusetts 
Court of Common Pleas. Mr. Ward began practice 
as a lawyer about the year 1787, at the time of 
Shays's Rebellion, during an unsettled period, when 
the lawyers were accustomed to carry pistols in their 
pockets while journeying on their circuits.^ He was 
occupying this house in 1818; for in September of that 
year the Selectmen granted him permission to have a 
well dug in front of his house, and to place a pump 
over it, "on condition that the pump be well finished 
and painted, and that there be a good shoe to the 
same." 

In October, 1848, the executors of Justice Ward's 
will conveyed the premises to Henry Joseph Gardner, 
Esq. (1819-92), a native of Dorchester. A.M., 1851; 

» Our First Men. 1846. 

76 



NUMBER SEVEN PARK STREET 

LL.D., Harvard, 1855. He was educated at private 
schools in Boston, and at Phillips Exeter Academy. 
He then joined the Class of 1838 at Bowdoin College, 
but did not graduate. Mr. Gardner became a mem- 
ber of the firm of Denny, Rice & Gardner, dry -goods 
merchants, and remained therein until 1876, when he 
formed a partnership with George Bacon, who dealt 
in leather and hides. In 1887 he represented the Mas- 
sachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, as its 
resident agent in Boston. 

During his mercantile career he became interested 
in municipal affairs, and served four years as a mem- 
ber of the Common Council, and later in the State 
Legislature. He was also a member of the Constitu- 
tional Convention in 1853, and Governor of Massa- 
chusetts for three years (1855-57). 

Mr. Gardner was the candidate of the Know- 
Nothing Party, whose principal doctrine was ex- 
pressed by the phrase "America for the Americans.'* 
Its chief aim was the exclusion of foreigners from 
all public offices. 

This party was likened to a vast secret society, 
with branches in every part of the Union. In many 
places lodges were instituted, with passwords and 
mysterious ceremonies. Mr. Gardner was elected 
with a plurality of more than fifty thousand votes 
over the Honorable Emory Washburn, his Whig 
predecessor as Governor. 

Next in line of the distinguished owners and oc- 

77 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

cupants of this estate was John Amory Lowell, Esq. 
(1798-1881), Harvard, 1815; LL.D., 1851; a success- 
ful merchant, who was connected with many phil- 
anthropic enterprises. He was also a Fellow of the 
American Academy, and a member of the Linnaean 
Society of London. By the will of the founder of the 
Lowell Institute, Mr. Lowell was appointed sole 
trustee of that Institution. The third codicil of his 
own will gave to his wife the right to occupy the Park 
Street house during her life, "free of rent and taxes.'* 
Finally, as before mentioned, the estate was bought 
by the Union Club in August, 1896, and reconstructed 
for the use of its members. A portion of the building 
was set apart for ladies. "Oh!" wrote Miss Susan 
Hale in one of her "Letters," in February, 1898, 
"^The Union Club, you know, has a department for 
ladies; to wit, in the old Mayflower Rooms. It has 
been beautifully done over, and is a much more 
charming place for a meal than our Mayflower. I 
lunched there several times. They have a Chef, and 
good food. The Thorndike also has a Chef from Del- 
monico's ; and all the chops have little tufts on top of 
them, and layers of peppers beneath. You would n't 
know a lamb, if you met him thus disguised; but the 
result is good ! " Again, writing from Weimar in 1882, 
she described the German beds as quite comfortable 
on top, but very breezy underneath, "where every 
blast of heaven howls and whistles all night, as they 
do around Park Street corner!" 



THE UNION CLUB HOUSE 

The house numbered eight on Park Street is on the 
site of the Bridewell. This estate was owned suc- 
cessively by Thomas Amory, Dr. John Jeffries, Wil- 
liam Payne, John Gore, and Jonathan Amory, Junior. 
It was bought by the last named in June, 1811, and he 
lived there until 1828. In October, 1836, the Hon- 
orable Abbott Lawrence became its owner, and he 
occupied it until his death in 1855. Mr. Lawrence 
was a native of Groton, Massachusetts. At an early 
age he served as an apprentice in the store of his 
brother Amos, at Number Thirty-One Cornhill (now 
a part of Washington Street), Boston. On attaining 
his majority the brothers formed a partnership under 
the firm name of A. & A. Lawrence. In 1834 Mr. 
Lawrence was elected a member of the Twenty-Sixth 
Congress, and served two years. In 1849 he was ap- 
pointed U.S. Minister to England, and retained the 
position until the autumn of 1852, when he returned 
to Boston. By his will he bequeathed "the mansion- 
house estate situated in Park Street, Boston," to his 
wife, Katharine Bigelow Lawrence, who continued 
to reside there for several years. 

In December, 1863, the trustees of Mr. Lawrence's 
estate leased the property to the Union Club of Bos- 
ton; and the latter became the owner thereof, Febru- 

79 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

ary 1, 1868. The Union Club was founded in the year 
1863, "For the encouragement of patriotic sentiment 
and opinion." A condition of membership was "un- 
qualified loyalty to the Constitution and Union of the 
United States; and unwavering support of the Fed- 
eral Government in its efforts for the suppression of 
the Rebellion." 



THE AMORY-TICKNOR HOUSE 

Number Nine Park Street 

The lots on the present Park Street, taken originally 
from the Common, and previously covered by public 
buildings, were sold under certain conditions, namely : 
that all buildings erected thereon should be uniform 
in style of construction; that the material employed 
should be brick or stone ; and that the roofs should be 
of slate or tiles, or of such other components as might 
best resist fire. Accordingly, in March, 1801, the 
agents for the Town, previously mentioned, sold at 
public auction to Thomas Amory, Esq., merchant, 
of Boston, the corner lot, measuring one hundred 
and fifty feet on Beacon Street, and sixty-six feet on 
Park Street. On this lot, where the Almshouse had 
formerly stood, Mr. Amory built in 1804 the large 
brick mansion of the Georgian style, which is still 
standing (although much altered for business pur- 
poses) at the head of Park Street. According to the 
Boston Directory of the year last mentioned, he was 
at that time the only resident on that thoroughfare; 
and the new house was called " Amory 's Folly" on 
account of its unusual size and pretentiousness. 
Thomas Amory (1762-1823) was a partner in busi- 
ness with his brother John, and at one time had 
amassed a considerable fortune. Financial losses, 

81 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

however, obliged him to dispose of his new mansion, 
which was later enlarged, and divided into four 
dwellings, whereof two had entrances on Beacon 
Street. The other two fronted on Park Street. 

The corner dwelling was occupied as early as 1806 
by Mrs. Catherine Carter, who there maintained a 
fashionable boarding-house, which became a popular 
resort for visitors from abroad. We quote from a 
letter of this period: "Mrs. Carter rejects twenty 
or thirty strangers a day; yet still keeps the mod- 
erate number of sixty in her family. After the 
warmth of the day is over, we form animated groups. 
We had quite a romantic one last evening, sitting on 
the grass by moon-light, with the accompaniment of 
a guitar and singing." Mrs. Carter afterward re- 
moved to Howard Street, where she kept a large, 
four-storied boarding-house, which was frequented 
by many people of quality. 

At a Selectmen's meeting, August 15, 1804, Mr. 
Thomas Amory was granted permission to build a 
range of wine and coal vaults, connected with his 
house, by forming brick arches under Beacon Street. 
These vaults, which are quite extensive, still exist. 

In January, 1807, Mr. Amory sold this dwelling, 
with the land, "and all the title to the wine and coal 
vaults," to the Honorable Samuel Dexter (third of 
the name), an eminent jurist, statesman, and promi- 
nent Federalist, who served as Secretary of War 
and Secretary of the Treasury in the Cabinet of 

82 



THE AMORY-TICKNOR HOUSE 

President John Adams. Before settling in Boston, 
Mr. Dexter owned and occupied a fine estate in 
Charlestown, where he maintained an attractive 
garden, with a greenhouse, fruit and ornamental 
trees. He was described by the Honorable Fisher 
Ames as "an Ajax at the Bar; and a gentleman of 
varied and liberal acquirements, and very distin- 
guished as a lawyer." In the practice of his profes- 
sion before the Supreme Court at Washington, he 
always attracted an audience consisting of the 
"beauty, taste, and learning of the City." Lucius 
Manlius Sargent, in his "Reminiscences of Samuel 
Dexter," 1857, wrote that this Commonwealth had 
never produced a man of more extraordinary intel- 
lectual powers. And yet, even then, a generation was 
springing up, who, upon mention of his name, might 
be pardoned for enquiring, "Who was Samuel Dex- 
ter?" Such is fame. Judge Joseph Story, of the Su- 
preme Court, in an address delivered May 15, 1816, 
spoke of Mr. Dexter as a steadfast friend of the Con- 
stitution of the United States, and a patriot in the 
purest sense of the term. Mr. Dexter's wife was 
Katherine, daughter of William and Temperance 
(Grant) Gordon, of Charlestown. 

In October, 1831, Mrs. Katherine Dexter, widow, 
sold the dwelling-house, which was her portion of the 
Amory estate, to Richard Cobb, Esq., who occupied 
it for several years. 

Matthias Plant Sawyer, of Portland, Maine, be- 

83 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

came the owner of the Dexter house in August, 1836, 
paying Mr. Cobb thirty thousand dollars therefor. 
He lived there for about nine years, and meanwhile 
was engaged in business, acquiring a handsome for- 
tune. Mr. Sawyer never married; but had an adopted 
daughter, Lydia N. Osgood, of Newburyport, who 
became the wife of Curtis B. Raymond. They were 
married in New York, March 29, 1849. By his will, 
dated April 5, 1853, he bequeathed to this adopted 
daughter the use or rent of his mansion-house on the 
corner of Beacon and Park Streets, during her nat- 
ural life, with the right to dispose of the same at her 
discretion; together with all the silverware, books, 
pictures, musical instruments, wines, and furniture. 
The portion of the edifice fronting on Beacon Street 
is still known as the Raymond Building. 

The foregoing items have been derived chiefly 
from the Probate Records. As Dr. Holmes wrote in 
the "Poet at the Breakfast-Table," "the Registry of 
Deeds and the Probate Office show us the same old 
folios, where we can read our grandfather's title to 
his estate (if we had a grandfather, and he happened 
to own anything) and see how many pots and kettles 
there were in his kitchen, by the Inventory of his 
estate." 

Curtis Burritt Raymond (1816-92) was a native 
of Sherburne, Chenango County, New York. He was 
educated at the Polytechnic Institute at Chitten- 
ango, in Madison County, and at Columbia College. 

84 



THE AMORY-TICKNOR HOUSE 

After a period of European travel, he became a 
resident of Boston about the year 1844, and a mem- 
ber of the firm of Rice, Hall & Raymond, dry goods, 
at 54 Milk Street. In the Directory of 1859 his name 
appears as President of Brady's Bend Iron Company, 
30 City Exchange. Mr. Raymond was prominent in 
military circles, and attained the rank of Major. 
He was well versed in the science of tactics, and re- 
vised Spencer's Manual for the First Corps of Ca- 
dets. This Manual, as revised by him, was after- 
ward adopted for use in the Russian Army. 

Major Raymond also drilled several regiments of 
volunteers at the camp in Lynnfield early in the 
Civil War. An intimate friend described him as 
having "a wonderful memory, a superior mind and 
talents of a high order." He was also an enthusiastic 
explorer, and lover of the White Mountains. In 1863 
he first blazed the way along the trail which leaves 
the carriage-road at the second mile-post, on the 
Glen side of Mount Washington, and leads upward 
to the so-called Snow Arch. This trail was improved 
by him in 1891, and is known as the Raymond Path. 

In 1884 or thereabout Lydia N. Raymond leased 
her homestead to John G. Mitchell, and soon after- 
ward the entire building was devoted to mercantile 
uses. 

The dwelling adjacent to and below the Dexter 
house, fronting on Park Street, and forming a part 
of the original Amory mansion, was owned succes- 

85 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

sively by Dr. John Jeffries, William Payne, the 
Honorable Christopher Gore, Andrew Ritchie, Har- 
rison Gray Otis, and George Ticknor. Dr. Jeffries 
bought this house from Mr. Thomas Amory in April, 
1806, for forty thousand dollars, and retained pos- 
session of it for one year only. 

He was of a family which has been represented in 
Boston for some two hundred and fifty years; a 
Harvard graduate of 1763; M.D., Aberdeen Uni- 
versity, 1769; and a prominent Loyalist practitioner 
in Boston. Dr. Jeffries assisted in caring for the 
British wounded after the Battle of Bunker Hill; 
and he it was who identified the body of General 
Joseph Warren. He accompanied the King's troops 
to Halifax in March, 1776, and was made Surgeon- 
General of his Majesty's forces in North America. 
During the later years of the Revolution he made his 
home in London, and in 1785 he acquired distinction 
by accompanying the French aeronaut, Frangois 
Blanchard, in a balloon, on the pioneer aerial flight 
across the English Channel. In order to prevent a 
descent into the sea, they were obliged to throw 
overboard considerable ballast, including a large 
portion of their clothing and supplies. In 1790 he re- 
turned to Boston, where he acquired a large practice. 
We have the testimony of Dr. O. W. Holmes that 
among the old ladies of the town Dr. Jeffries was 
known as "Jeffers," which was doubtless a term of 
endearment. It was said that during the fifty-six 

86 



THE AMORY-TICKNOR HOUSE 

years of his professional career, he seldom enjoyed 
an uninterrupted meal in his own house. He was an 
inveterate foe to quackery in any form, and "never 
from any motive allowed to pass, without remon- 
strance, fulsome praise of the fashionable charlatan 
of the day." 

Dr. Jeffries was succeeded in the ownership of the 
estate by William Payne, Esq., merchant, of Bos- 
ton. As a young man he was engaged in the insur- 
ance business, in partnership with his father, Edward 
Payne. Their office was on Long Wharf. Later he 
formed a partnership with Thomas C. Amory "in 
the commission line." After this he wrote: "I 
bought and sold public securities, and like a simple- 
ton gave up the insurance business, and bought large 
tracts of land in the State of Georgia." 

The Honorable Christopher Gore was the next 
proprietor of this portion of the Amory mansion, 
which he occupied while serving as Governor in 
1808-09. He was one of a group of distinguished con- 
temporary lawyers, which included Theophilus Par- 
sons, Samuel Dexter, James Sullivan, Fisher Ames, 
and Harrison Gray Otis. His failure of reelection, 
after one year's service, was attributed to the poli- 
tical excitement and bitter party contentions of the 
day, and not to any lack of popular appreciation. 
"Few men," it was said of him, "were more power- 
ful in argument or more eloquent in debate." Gov- 
ernor Gore was afterward a member of the United 

87 • 



' OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

States Senate. His estate at Waltham was one of the 
most pretentious in New England, and its fine old 
mansion is still to be seen there. He was accustomed 
to drive about in an orange-colored coach, with 
liveried coachman, footman, and outriders; a spec- 
tacle which must have been sensational in its effect 
upon the minds of the plain country people there- 
about. 

While serving in the National Congress, he formed 
a close and enduring friendship with the Honorable 
Jeremiah Mason, one of the most prominent states- 
men and lawyers in the country. Mr. Mason once 
referred to Mr. Gore as having few superiors in 
Washington or anywhere else. 

Andrew Ritchie (Harvard, 1802), who bought the 
Jeffries house in 1816, was a practising lawyer, of 
Boston, and a well-known authority on fine editions 
of the classics. He delivered the oration at the 
municipal exercises on Independence Day, 1808. 

The Honorable Harrison Gray Otis (1782-1862) 
was the next owner. "All three of his names," wrote 
his biographer, "stood for respectability and long- 
established position in the Province of Massachu- 
setts Bay. . . . He came of pure English stock, 
strengthened by five generations in America, and 
refined by three generations of public service." Mr. 
Otis was one of the leaders of the Federalist Party, 
and a distinguished public speaker. He served in 
both Houses of Congress, and as Mayor of Boston 

88 



THE AMORY-TICKNOR HOUSE 

for two years. "Old Faneuil Hall," said one of his 
admirers, "will ever be memorable as the forum, 
whence with a voice of silvery sweetness, the flashes 
of wit and stirring eloquence of the Boston Cicero 
captivated the people." 

The mother of Mr. Otis was the only daughter 
of Harrison Gray, Loyalist, and Treasurer of the 
Province. The large dwelling at number 45 Beacon 
Street, which Mr. Otis first occupied in 1807, was 
afterward bought by Edward Austin, Esq., who re- 
sided there for fifty years. 

In July, 1830, the easterly portion of the Amory 
house came into the possession of George Ticknor 
(1791-1871), the well-known author of the "History 
of Spanish Literature," who made his home there for 
forty-one years. "The situation, the proportions and 
the taste of this residence," in the words of his 
biographer, "sufficed for all the needs of domestic 
and social hours. His new house stood at the most 
attractive point of the margin of the Common, at the 
top of the slope, looking down the avenue of elms of 
the finest of its malls." ^ 

His valuable books were kept in a large, attractive 
room, with three balconied windows, on the second 
floor. 

Mr. Ticknor was a graduate of Dartmouth Col- 
lege in 1807, and was admitted to the Bar in 1813. 
He served as Professor of Modern Languages and 

^ George S. Hillard, Ldje, Letters and Journals of Geoige Ticknor, 

89 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

Literature at Harvard for sixteen years, and was 
one of the founders of the Boston Public Library. 
He was also Chairman of its Board of Trustees in 
1864-66. 

By his will Mr. Ticknor bequeathed to his wife 
the Park Street estate, together with "all the fur- 
niture, stores, plate, housekeeping articles, pictures, 
engravings, marbles, busts and works of art and 
taste." 

Mrs. Ticknor continued to occupy the house, 
where she is said to have "ruled as a social queen," 
until the year 1884. Over the mantel in the library 
hung a portrait of Sir Walter Scott. When the Tick- 
nors were returning to Boston from Scotland in 
1824, Sir W^alter offered to give Mr. Ticknor some 
remembrance of his visit; and the latter suggested 
a portrait of his host. In deference to Mr. Ticknor's 
nationality, an American artist, C. R. Leslie, was 
selected to paint the portrait, which was considered 
an excellent likeness. Sir Walter desired that the 
artist should include one of his dogs in the picture; 
but after one or two experiments Mr. Leslie decided 
against it. 

In the Park Street mansion for half a century 
many eminent citizens were hospitably welcomed. 
Prescott, the historian, was often there; and among 
other frequent visitors were Daniel Webster, Edward 
Everett, and Rufus Choate. 

"It was in the Spring of 1832," wrote Mr. Hil- 

90 



THE AMORY-TICKNOR HOUSE 

lard in his "Memoir" of the Honorable Jeremiah 
Mason. " We met at the house of our common friend, 
Mr. Ticknor; a house for so many years known in 
Boston for its elegant hospitality, and the culti- 
vated and agreeable society which gathered there. 
Every member of the Bar, and every law student in 
New England, knew at least two things about Mr. 
Mason; that he was a very tall man, and a very 
great lawyer. Had I seen him without knowing who 
he was, I should have taken him for a prosperous 
farmer. As I glanced from his face to that of Sir 
Walter Scott, in a fine portrait by Leslie, which hung 
over the fire-place, I thought I saw some resemblance 
between the two." 

An esteemed correspondent, writing from New 
Bedford, enclosed a copy of an extract from a Bos- 
ton newspaper of the year 1876, as follows: "George 
Ticknor was not remarkable for originality. He never 
said brilliant things, nor surprised anybody by the 
boldness of his criticism. He made no happy strokes, 
and dropped no memorable bons mots, to circulate 
in the speech of his friends. But his large reading, 
his exact and cheerful scholarship, his finely culti- 
vated taste, elegant manners, and pronounced con- 
servatism made him conspicuous and respected. 
He was a good listener and a shrewd observer; and if 
his own flint emitted no sparks under the steel, his 
tinder caught and kept those struck from more 
gifted minds." 

91 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

The Society to Encourage Studies at Home was 
founded by Miss Anna Eliot Ticknor, daughter of 
George Ticknor, in the year 1873, and continued to 
exist until 1897. Meetings of the Society were held 
in the attractive library of the mansion. From there 
Miss Ticknor "laid out and directed courses of study 
over the country. By a well organized system of dis- 
tribution, she sent books, engravings, photographs, 
maps and all that makes the outfit of thorough in- 
struction, to the doors of families living far from 
libraries, museums or colleges. She opened new 
sources of progress and pleasure to mothers and 
their children within their own homes; and without 
hindering in any way domestic duties or claims.*' 
The Department of History of the Society was or- 
ganized by Miss Katharine P. Loring. The object 
of the teachers was to assist the students in finding 
the meaning of history, "and to understand a people 
by taking dates, events and even the lives and doings 
of important men as indications, and not as final 
knowledge." The title was suggested by that of an 
English Society of similar name. 

Edward Greene Malbone (1777-1807), the noted 
painter of miniatures, began his work in Boston in 
1796, when but nineteen years of age. He visited 
Europe in 1801 with Washington Allston, but soon 
returned, and made his home in the Amory mansion, 
not long after it was built. He probably boarded 

92 



THE AMORY-TICKNOR HOUSE 

with Mrs. Catherine Carter, who entertained many 
well-known people at her hostelry in the same man- 
sion. As a portrait-painter Malbone was said to have 
ranked with the foremost artists of any age. His 
masterpiece was called "The Hours," wherein the 
present, past, and future were represented by female 
heads. 

The Honorable Fisher Ames was one of the early 
occupants of the Amory house, which was also the 
birthplace of Thomas Coffin Amory, Junior (1812-89). 
Mr. Ames was a graduate of Harvard College, Class 
of 1774. He practised law for a time in his native 
town of Dedham, and then entered upon a political 
career. Throughout the eight years of President 
Washington's administration he was an influential 
Federalist member of the National Congress. In 
1804 he was elected President of Harvard, but ill 
health obliged him to decline the honor. 

The Amory house was the home of General La- 
fayette during his visit to Boston in August, 1824. 
At that time the portion of the building facing Beacon 
Street was occupied by a Club, which was an organi- 
zation of Boston merchants. Replying to an address 
of welcome by Mayor Quincy, Lafayette said: 
"What must be my feelings. Sir, at the blessed 
moment when, after so long an absence, I find myself 
surrounded by the good citizens of Boston; when I 
can witness the prosperity, the immense improve- 
ments, that have been the just reward of a noble 

93 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

struggle, virtuous morals and truly Republican In- 
stitutions! I beg you all, beloved citizens of Boston, 
to accept the respectful and warm thanks of a heart 
which has, for nearly half a century, been devoted 
to your illustrious City." Lafayette also declared 
that the crowd which thronged the streets appeared 
to him "like a picked population out of the whole 
human race." ^ 

While Marshal JofFre was driving past this house, 
with his military escort, in May, 1917, he was ob- 
served to raise his hat; a graceful act, it was believed, 
in memory of his illustrious compatriot.' 

On the day of his arrival in Boston, Lafayette, 
attended by the members of his suite and the civil 
authorities, passed along the Tremont Street Mall 
to the foot of Park Street. He was greeted en route 
by some twenty-five hundred school children, who 
were gayly attired in honor of the occasion, A bat- 
talion of light infantry formed in line on Park Street, 
and was reviewed by the General. The children 
sang the "Marseillaise." Among them was Wendell 
Phillips, the famous orator, reformer, and aboli- 
tionist, who was then eleven years old, and a pupil 
at the Public Latin School. Mr. Phillips related how 
he stood in line with his schoolmates on that oc- 
casion. They had ribbons, bearing portraits of La- 
fayette, pinned on their jackets. And "when that 
enthusiast for Liberty, then a grand old man, re- 

* The Lnje of Josiah Quincy. 

94 



THE AMORY-TICKNOR HOUSE 

visited the land, to which in the hot blood of youth, 
he had given his sword, he little dreamed that his 
journey was to be a triumphal procession, such as the 
world had never seen." Even the horses were ex- 
horted to do their best on this historic occasion. 
"Behave pretty now, Charley," said the driver of 
the General's coach to one of his pair; "behave 
pretty; you are going to carry the greatest man in 
the world." ^ 

Soon after his arrival General Lafayette appeared 
upon the balcony above the entrance of the Amory 
mansion, to receive the greetings of the populace. 
He was escorted on either side by Governor William 
Eustis and by the former Governor John Brooks, 
each wearing Continental uniforms. The first-named 
had served as a surgeon in the American army dur- 
ing the Revolution, and attended the wounded after 
the Battle of Bunker Hill, wherein Mr. Brooks was a 
participant. These two veteran officers had become 
reconciled after an estrangement, in order that they 
might share together the honor of welcoming the 
distinguished visitor. On the evening of August 30, 
1824, Lafayette held a reception in his apartments at 
the Amory house; and this function was attended by 
many prominent ladies of Boston. 

In some "Reminiscences of Lafayette's Visit to 
Boston," in 1824, General William H. Sumner nar- 
rates that a portion of the Amory mansion was fitted 

* Mary Caroline Crawford, Old New England Inns. 

95 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

up for the occasion, and that an iron door was opened 
in the wall of the partition between Mrs. Carter's 
lodgings and the apartments of Mrs. John Jeffries, 
thus connecting the splendid drawing-rooms of the 
two houses. "When Lafayette entered the house, 
which was thrown open for the free reception of 
citizens, the latter rushed in to take him by the hand. 
But the multitude who thronged to see him were sur- 
prised at not being able to do so; because the moment 
he entered the house, he enquired for the bath-room, 
where he refreshed himself for so long a time, that 
many retired without accomplishing their wishes." 

On the 2d of September, when the General re- 
turned from New Hampshire, a banquet was given 
by the City Council in his honor at the Amory- 
Ticknor house. Lafayette, we are told, enjoyed his 
visit to Boston highly. He was cheered to the echo 
whenever he went abroad; and the corner of Park 
Street was seldom deserted.* 

On the occasion of the laying of the corner-stone 
of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1825, a pro- 
cession was formed at the head of Park Street under 
the direction of Major-General Theodore Lyman, 
Junior. The military escort consisted of sixteen 
companies of infantry and a cavalry squadron. 
Then came about forty veterans, survivors of the 
Battle. They were followed by some two hundred 
Revolutionary officers and soldiers. Next in the line 

^ Samuel A. Drake, Historic Landmarks of Boston. 

96 



THE AMORY-TICKNOR HOUSE 

were a large body of Freemasons, adorned with their 
regalia and jewels. These preceded General Lafa- 
yette, who rode in a "coach and four." In that order 
the procession moved down Park Street, and along 
Tremont Street to Charlestown.^ 

Lafayette's appearance at that time was thus 
described: "A tall man, of a ruddy, or rather sun- 
burnt complexion; with strong features and a very 
gracious smile. His eyes were bright and expressive. 
He wore a wig, and was dressed very plainly in a 
brown frock coat and nankeen pantaloons. He 
walked lame from an old wound in one of his legs; 
and bowed with that graceful and benevolent air, 
which ever distinguishes a gentleman." ^ In a con- 
temporary account of the anniversary celebration, 
mention is made of a veteran soldier, who occupied 
a front seat of one of the carriages in the procession. 
Wearing his old battle-stained uniform, in which 
bullet-holes were plainly visible, he held in his ex- 
tended right hand a Continental bullet-pouch, which 
he waved gently, to attract the attention of the spec- 
tators, by whom he was greeted with wild enthu- 
siasm. 

* Caleb H. Snow, A History of Boston. 
' George H. Moore, LL.D. 



REMINISCENCES OF PARK STREET 

By J. Collins Warren, M.D. 

At the time of my birth in 1842, our family was liv- 
ing in Pemberton Square, at Number Twenty-Nine, 
nearly opposite the approach to the Square from Som- 
erset Street. It was when I was three years of age that 
we moved into Number Six Park Street. Incidentally 
it may be remarked that I have lived continuously 
"on the Common" from that time to this (1922), 
the sole remaining local representative of the resi- 
dents of that period. Number Six was a more modern 
type of house than the Bulfinch block, being con- 
structed, like its neighbors, Numbers Five, Seven, 
and Eight, with a front elevation of the red-faced 
brick, which was so characteristic a feature of the 
fashionable dwelling of that period. The lot on which 
this house stood, nineteen feet in width, had been a 
part of the estate of Governor Gore, which had been 
sold to Mr. Francis C. Gray, who built a house for 
himself on the larger lot. It was purchased by Dr. 
John C. Warren in order that his son might be near 
him; and the house which had already been planned 
by the architect, Mr. George M. Dexter, was built 
upon it. It was a tradition in the family that my 
mother had hesitated long before agreeing to this site 
in preference to one next to Saint Paul's Church on 

98 



REMINISCENCES OF PARK STREET 

Tremont Street. The latter choice was finally set 
aside as one in too close proximity to the inevitable 
funereal functions of its neighbor. In preparation for 
the occupancy of this house, illuminating gas was in- 
troduced into all the rooms; and my mother was re- 
sponsible for a statement, often dwelt upon by her, 
that this was the first instance of gas being used in a 
private dwelling-house in the City; and that the event 
was considered one of suflBcient importance to be men- 
tioned in the daily newspapers. It must have been 
about this time also (1848) that Cochituate water 
was introduced into the City. The installation of 
"fixed basins" in every bedroom was then considered 
a great advance over the old type of washstand. 
There were two bath-tubs, which, for a house with 
less than twenty feet frontage, was considered a gen- 
erous supply. Both of them were fitted with appara- 
tus for shower-baths, which poured a feeble stream of 
cold water upon the shoulders of those whose systems 
could withstand the shock. The tonic effect of this 
mode of ablution was heralded abroad with much en- 
thusiasm by the medical fraternity, and was admin- 
istered indiscriminately to the young, the feeble, and 
the aged, as a panacea for many ailments. The im- 
perfections inseparable from the plumbing of those 
days soon gave rise to complications which were not 
always compatible with an ideal hygienic standard, 
and finally led to the abolishment of the "fixed basin " 
from the sleeping-apartment. It was in this house 

99 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

that the younger members of the family were bom; 
and although there were but four master's bedrooms, 
it was supposed at the time to give ample accommo- 
dations for a family of seven children. 

My earliest recollections of sleeping conveniences 
are those associated with a "trundle bed," which in 
the daytime disappeared beneath the flowing drap- 
ery of the four-posted bed of my parents. The draw- 
ing- and dining-rooms were up one flight of stairs; 
which occupied so much space in the centre of the 
building that the passage which communicated with 
these two apartments was a long and narrow one. 
The doctor's office was on the ground floor, and the 
adjacent hall did service for the waiting patients; as 
did also a goodly portion of the first flight of stairs. 

My good father was fond of sermonizing on the lux- 
uries of the day, as compared with those of his youth. 
Doubtless the changes in "essentials" since his time 
have much to do with present-day laments over the 
high cost of living. Our immediate neighbors on each 
side were members of the Quincy family. I recall a 
visit which I made with my father to President 
Josiah Quincy in his old age. He was suffering from 
an injury to his hip, caused by a fall. He had been at- 
tended medically during his long life by three genera- 
tions of the Warren family; and inasmuch as the first 
generation yielded two members to his service (Jo- 
seph and John), my father thought that the oppor- 
tunity should not be missed of introducing to him a 

100 



REMINISCENCES OF PARK STREET 

fifth Warren. I was still quite a lad, and doubtless 
went with my father more or less by compulsion; but 
I recall vividly the scolding which my father got for 
not giving him a better leg. This threw me for the 
time being quite into the background, much to my 
satisfaction. After the death of President Quincy, the 
house passed, I think, into the possession of Governor 
Gardner, and underwent much alteration, receiving 
in the lower story a facing of freestone, which had 
then begun to be a fashionable material. 

Number Eight Park Street was occupied at that 
time by the Honorable Abbott Lawrence, whose 
dwelling has been preserved with comparatively little 
change in many of its parts, by the Union Club. I re- 
call a very agreeable visit to Mr. Lawrence, in my 
childhood; and was much entertained, while seated 
on his knee, by the exhibition of a bag of copper 
coins, which had recently been discovered by work- 
men digging in his cellar. 

They were of more historic than monetary value, 
bearing the imprint of King George, and evidently 
buried there in Revolutionary times. 

After the death of my grandfather in 1856, we 
moved into Number Two Park Street, and Number 
Six was occupied by my uncle, J. Sullivan Warren and 
his wife. My uncle died in 1867, and his widow con- 
tinued to live there until her death in 1896. 

Number Two Park Street was one of a block of 
four brick houses, four stories in height, with low 

101 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

attic roofs. An iron balcony on the parlor floor re- 
lieved the simplicity of the front elevation. A broad 
arched doorway gave cover to a flight of two steps, 
and avoided encroachment upon the sidewalk, which 
was of more moderate width than at the present time; 
a sidewalk of similar breadth then existed on the Com- 
mon side of the street. Each lot represented a front- 
age of about forty feet, which gave ample space for a 
passage to the right of the main entrance into the 
back yard. This was a necessary feature of each 
building, owing to the absence of an alleyway in the 
rear of the block, due to the fact that the lots abutted 
directly upon the Granary Burying-Ground. The 
original plans ^ show an arched entrance to this pas- 
sageway, possibly intended to admit vehicles. The 
windows on the other side of the front door are drawn 
on a smaller scale than those which existed in my 
time, and resemble many still to be seen in some of the 
ancient residences on Beacon Hill. 

The house as originally built occupied the front of 
the lot only; and an Ell was subsequently added on 
the northern half of the yard, which extended nearly 
to the rear boundary fence. This had a solid brick 
base supporting a tall iron railing, in orue corner of 
which was a padlocked gate, permitting at times ac- 
cess to the cemetery. This enclosure served the pur- 
pose of a private city park for the abutters, rather 

1 In the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and signed 
by Bulfinch. 

102 



REMINISCENCES OF PARK STREET 

than a place for the burial of the dead ; for few inter- 
ments were made there after the beginning of the 
nineteenth century. It afforded far from a mournful 
prospect to the occupants of the Park Street dwellings, 
and served as a playground for the children of the 
family. In the summer-time the foliage was most lux- 
uriant; and before the advent of horse-cars on Tre- 
mont Street, the enclosure afforded to the inhabitants 
of Park Street all the advantages of private grounds; 
giving protection from the noises of city life, and pro- 
viding a much enjoyed breathing space in the very 
heart of the metropolis. With the broad expanse of 
Boston Common on the western front, the buildings 
afforded an ideal dwelling spot, for the better part of 
a century, until the rising tide of traffic finally forced 
the last inhabitant into a new residential district. 
Many were the adventures in the "Old Granary," as 
it was called. Members of my family can still tell of 
picnics and other festivals held upon the quaint old 
table-like structures covering the graves of families 
with historic names. 

Many of these tablets were already showing signs of 
extreme age, and the loosened brick-work of crumb- 
ling walls furnished temptation to youthful curiosity. 
But a wholesome respect for, not to say fear of, 
their gruesome contents, restrained tendencies to ju- 
venile vandalism. Governor Gardner, who at one 
time occupied the house, Number Seven Park Street, 
once told the writer that a tomb in the rear of this lot 

103 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

had greatly excited the curiosity of members of his 
family by showing signs of collapse in one of its walls, 
sufficient to expose the contents. The final tumbling 
in of a few loose bricks, perhaps aided in their fall by 
inquisitive hands, disclosed a skull still covered with 
luxurious flaxen tresses. The excitement caused by 
this discovery induced him to examine into the his- 
tory of the former inhabitants of this last resting- 
place. Investigation led to the somewhat startling 
discovery that a beautiful young lady who had died 
of smallpox had found here an untimely grave. . . . 

At Number Two Park Street Dr. and Mrs. John 
C. Warren passed their married life; and here their 
children were born. There were three boys, John, 
James Sullivan, and Jonathan Mason; and three girls, 
Susan (Mrs. Charles Lyman), Mary Collins (Mrs. 
Thomas Dwight), and Emily (Mrs. William Apple- 
ton). My father (Mason) was born, and died in the 
same room (1810-67); a record certainly unusual in 
the rapidly changing conditions of an American city. 

The house, as originally built, contained no fur- 
nace. In cold weather the older people sat around the 
fire ; while the boys lighted pieces of brown paper, and 
shook them up and down in their long boots to warm 
them, before venturing to pull them on. Although 
windows were usually kept closed at night, ice had to 
be broken for the boys to wash in, on rising in the 
morning. Fortunately, the house was situated in a 
sheltered spot under the brow of Beacon Hill, and in 

104 



REMINISCENCES OF PARK STREET 

later years, when the hot-air furnace was in all its 
glory, there was never any difficulty in keeping the 
house warm in spite of its wide frontage and the entire 
absence of double windows. 

In the early part of the century, the custom pre- 
vailed of apprenticing the young student of medicine 
to a member of the Faculty. Until 1810 the medical 
lectures were given at Cambridge, and until 1821, 
when the Massachusetts General Hospital opened its 
doors for patients, little or no facilities for studying 
disease in hospital wards existed in Boston. The ap- 
prentice system, therefore, still prevailed as a legacy 
from a previous generation. My father often described 
to me the conditions which consequently existed at 
Number Two Park Street during his boyhood days. 
A room on the ground floor, well sanded, was given 
up to the medical students. Here the pupils pursued 
their studies, and picked up such clinical experience 
as the practice of their preceptor afforded. 

The students also boarded, or at all events took 
their midday meal, in the house. The boys, Sullivan 
and Mason, were given places at the table, and took 
advantage of their association with companions of 
more mature years to play many childish pranks upon 
them. I recall the thrilling story of a fiery-headed 
youth, generally regarded as the "butt" of his com- 
rades, who, after some more than usually impudent 
practical joke, pursued relentlessly young Sullivan 
Warren out of the house and across the Common, 

105 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

until the guilty urchin found sanctuary in the Frog 
Pond. This was before the day when that delightful 
old reminder of the mother country, the iron fence, 
had been erected. 

The rapidly increasing volume of works on medical 
subjects finally necessitated the construction of an 
Ell, in which the library was placed. Here all non- 
professional books found an asylum, in cases of ma- 
hogany hue reaching nearly to the ceiling, and form- 
ing an oval room of charming proportions, decorated 
with portraits and busts of many old worthies. In 
an alcove at the farther end, receiving light from the 
"Old Granary," stood a bust of James Jackson, the 
lifelong friend, which seemed to give special charac- 
ter and dignity to the apartment. My recollections 
of the house during this period of its history are con- 
fined to occasional visits to my grandfather, and 
to my step-grandmother; and also to the annual 
family gatherings, which occurred on Thanksgiving 
Days. It was our custom to attend these every other 
year, the alternate years being devoted to similar 
gatherings at the home of my mother's father, the 
Honorable B. W. Crowninshield, on the corner of 
Somerset and Beacon Streets. It would appear that 
the harvest fete day was more formally observed by 
the heads of families at that time than either Christ- 
mas or New Year's Day. I also recall attending the 
wedding of Emily Warren and William Appleton, 
when hardly more than three years of age. The cere- 

106 



REMINISCENCES OF PARK STREET 

mony was held in the two front rooms, which gave 
space for a large gathering; and the service was 
performed by the Reverend Alexander H. Vinton. 
Susan Powell Mason died on January 3, 1841; and in 
October, 1843, Dr. Warren married Anne Winthrop, 
sister of the Honorable Robert C. Winthrop. After 
her death, in December, 1851, Mr. and Mrs. James 
Sullivan Warren came to live at Number Two Park 
Street. 

Dr. John C. Warren died in 1856, and in the fall of 
the next year his son. Dr. Jonathan Mason Warren, 
moved from Number Six Park Street into his father's 
house. The old homestead at this time needed much 
renovation. As the family had gradually diminished 
in size, many of the rooms were given up to osteo- 
logical and fossil collections; accumulations of years 
during the development of the "Mastodon Museum" 
on Chestnut Street. A full-sized copy in oil of Rem- 
brandt's "Lesson in Anatomy" occupied the south- 
ern wall of the entrance hall; but this was removed, 
partly in deference to my mother's protests, and 
partly for the purpose of cutting an archway to 
communicate with a patients' waiting-room, in the 
space formerly provided for the alleyway. The neces- 
sary alterations were completed during the winter, 
and my father and his family entered into possession 
in the autumn of 1857. I recall that a valuation of 
forty thousand dollars had been put upon the house 
by the executors of my grandfather's estate; a figure 

107 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

which my father regarded as excessively high, and 
therefore prejudicial to his financial interests as one 
of the heirs. The mansion at this period was a fine 
example of an old Boston homestead, made com- 
fortable by many modern improvements. There 
were two bath-rooms, and set basins in many of 
the bed-chambers. This custom was, I think, quite 
universal at the time, there being no prejudice 
against the presence of waste pipes in a sleeping 
apartment. 

On the ground floor, and opposite to the new arched 
recess in the front entry, was the doctor's oflBce. 
The room had two windows facing on the street, and 
partook more of the character of a "Study" than 
of an "Ofiice." High oak-colored book-cases sur- 
rounded what was in reality a spacious apartment, 
forming an oval curve at the farther end, through 
which an entrance penetrated into an interior lava- 
tory and medicine closet, provided with remedies 
such as the times afforded. Between the windows 
was an old mahogany piece of furniture, which con- 
tained on itslishelves above books of reference, and 
below a series of shallow drawers containing a for- 
midable array of surgical instruments, most of which 
in the fulness of time have since found their way 
into the cases of the historical collection at the Har- 
vard Medical School. Here was to be found a fine 
medical library, the accumulation of half a century 
of medical literature, and giving a fair representa- 

108 



REMINISCENCES OF PARK STREET 

tion of the medical progress of that period. No ex- 
pense had been spared by its former occupant, and 
my father became thus the jX)ssessor, not only of 
the current medical literature of the day, but also 
of many a rare and valuable monograph produced at 
times when no thought of expense stood in the way 
of an ambitious author. The old library on the sec- 
ond floor of the Ell w^as carefully preserved from any 
modern improvements, and continued to represent 
the dwelling-place of the lares and penates. The front 
rooms on this floor were separated by the typical 
mahogany "folding-door," one of them being given 
up to the dining-room, as in former times; and the 
other to the drawing-room; or, as it was usually 
called by us children, "the best parlor." The view 
from these rooms was an exceptional one in the City 
at that period; there being no dwelling-houses inter- 
vening between this block and the sky-line formed 
by the hills of Brookline. The western sun on a 
w^inter's day gave light and warmth which pene- 
trated all corners of these houses until the very close 
of the day. Our family consisted at that time of my 
father, Jonathan Mason Warren, my mother, Annie 
Crowninshield Warren, and five children, — Mary 
(Mrs. Samuel Hammond), myself, next in order; 
then Rosamond (Mrs. C. H. Gibson), Eleanor (Mrs. 
Thomas Motley), and Annie C. Warren. The w^ed- 
dings of Mrs. Hammond (1858), Mrs. Gibson (1871), 
and Mrs. Motley (1872) took place while they were 

109 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

living in this house. Dr. Mason Warren died here on 
August 19, 1867. During the season of 1868-69, the 
house was leased to and occupied by John Lothrop 
Motley, the historian. In the summer of that year 
the writer returned from a three years' course of 
medical study in Europe, and began the practice of 
his profession in the old doctor's office; and con- 
tinued in practice there until 1874, when he removed 
to Number Fifty-Eight Beacon Street, where he has 
since resided (1922). 

The night of the Great Boston Fire in 1872 was a 
memorable one for Number Two. This private 
dwelling was then on the very front line of the resi- 
dential district; and with its neighbors in the block 
was nearer to the seat of the conflagration than any 
dwelling-house of that period. The writer, being the 
only occupant of the house at that time, hastily 
summoned members of the family from their homes 
in the "Back Bay," and they kept open house for 
the greater part of the night. Old fire bags, bearing 
the name of John C. Warren, were unearthed from 
their concealment in ornamental fire buckets of the 
date 1816. These were filled with silver; and to- 
gether with valuable paintings, were removed to the 
homes of relatives. This was not done until the fire 
had worked up Summer Street as far as Washington 
Street, when it was felt that the stampede of vehicles 
of all kinds would soon make passage from Park 
Street to Beacon Street impracticable. 

110 



REMINISCENCES OF PARK STREET 

The final occupants of the old homestead were 
Mrs. Jonathan Mason Warren and her unmarried 
daughter, Annie C. Warren, who remained there un- 
til the house was pulled down and replaced as an 
ofilce and store building, which was leased to Messrs. 
Doll & Richards for a term of years. This event oc- 
curred in the year 1878. 

The tearing down of the old Bulfinch building 
opened a vista into the cemetery from Park Street. 
Public attention was thus drawn anew to this old 
relic of the past. The grave of John Hancock was 
situated in this part of the grounds and had always 
been an object of interest to visitors at Number Two 
Park Street. A single stone with the simple inscrip- 
tion ''Hancock" was all that marked the site of the 
grave. It was not long after this occurrence that a 
suitable monument was placed over the grave of this 
distinguished Bostonian, for the first time, so as to 
be easily seen by the passer-by on the crowded Tre- 
mont Street thoroughfare. Numbers Three and Four 
of this block had, if my memory serves me right, 
already been claimed for business purposes; but Num- 
ber One was still occupied by Mr. Thomas Wiggles- 
worth and his two sisters, Miss Mary and Miss Anne. 

I was sent to school at Park Street Church at the 
age of five. This was in 1847. It was a girls' school, 
kept by Miss Dwight, and I was the only boy. 
The school-room was situated in the brick portion of 
the tower which supports the steeple, and was lighted 

111 



OLD PAEK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

by an arched window above the main entrance on 
Tremont Street. A door from the farther end led 
directly up into the wooden steeple, which served as 
a playground for the pupils. Miss D wight's scholars 
varied in age from beginners to "big girls." I re- 
mained there about one year, and then was trans- 
ferred to Mr. D. B. Tower's School for Boys. This 
school occupied a large room on the ground floor of 
the church, running from Park Street to the rear of 
the building, facing directly upon the Granary Bury- 
ing-Ground. The entrance was, as at present, on Park 
Street. Mr. Tower had for assistants Mr. Tweed and 
Mr. Baxter. Mr. Tower was a short, thick-set man, 
with a powerful physique. He had a deep voice and 
somewhat imperious manner; but was much inter- 
ested in his pupils individually, and was a popular 
and successful teacher. Mr. Tweed, the senior assist- 
ant, was no longer young. He was tall and slender in 
figure, a quaint old-fashioned type, long since passed 
away. Mr. Baxter was a most genial schoolmaster, 
and with his colleagues succeeded in keeping well 
in hand a conglomeration of representatives of the 
younger generation of fashionable and unfashionable 
Boston of the period. I remember that Thanksgiv- 
ing Day was always observed by an annual gathering 
at the school. Each boy's desk was covered with 
a generous supply of apples, nuts, and raisins; and 
some of the older boys were expected to contribute 
to the day's entertainment by "speaking pieces." 

112 



REMINISCENCES OF PARK STREET 

One of the oldest boys in the school was the lead- 
ing star, and always wound up the day's exer- 
cises with an oratorical effort, which was greatly 
appreciated. IVIr. Sullivan's school for boys was in 
the basement of the church, and was approached 
from Park Street corner by a steep flight of steps. 
This was also a popular school, but not so large as 
its neighbors. The schools above mentioned all con- 
tinued to occupy the church building for many years 
after. 

During the years immediately preceding the Civil 
War, the eastern part of the Common, especially the 
grass-plot alongside Park Street Mall, was a favorite 
playground for school-boys, hockey being then a 
popular feature in athletics. Many boys from the 
Public Latin School, then on Bedford Street, took 
part in these sports. In the spring and summer the 
game of marbles was a customary pastime. In those 
days the Park Street region was purely residential; 
the only evidence of its role as a thoroughfare being 
the passage of the old stage-coach in the early morn- 
ing hours, from the northern to the southern railway 
terminus, and the not infrequent blocking of the 
road by flocks of sheep which were being driven 
across the city. Cab-stands were unknown, and a 
quiet, home-like atmosphere, which also pervaded 
both Tremont and Winter Streets, gave safe ap- 
proach for timid pedestrians to the shopping district. 
The residential quarter of Boston at that time was 

113 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

largely in this locality, and the jBne old specimens of 
early nineteenth century architecture, extending well 
beyond Washington Street, through Summer Street, 
past Church Green, were strongly suggestive of many 
parts of the mother City of London. 



PARK STREET CHURCH 

The lot whereon the Granary stood, measuring one 
hundred and eighteen feet along Park Street, was 
sold by the Town agents, November 10, 1795, for 
the sum of $8366 to Major-General Henry Jackson, 
who commanded the Massachusetts Militia at the 
time of the sale. He had served with distinction dur- 
ing the Revolution, and was the owner of consid- 
erable real estate in the town. From him the Granary 
lot passed to the control of Mrs. Hepsibah Swan, the 
widow of James Swan. Thereafter it became the 
property of her daughters, who sold the premises, 
April 13, 1809, to Caleb Bingham, book-seller and 
publisher; Andrew Calhoun, merchant; and William 
Thurston, Esq., Trustees of the Church. The price 
paid for this land was twenty thousand dollars. 

A subsequent deed to Samuel H. Walley, January 
17, 1810, recites that "a Church of Christ, called 
Park Street Church, had been gathered in the Town 
of Boston; and a brick meeting-house lately erected 
on a street formerly called Gentry Street, and now 
called Park Place." The Trustees "do permit and 
suffer the said house and land to be used, occupied 
and enjoyed as and for a meeting-house or place for 
the public, Protestant worship and service of God." 

The Granary was removed in 1809, and the Church 
115 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

was built immediately afterward from designs pre- 
pared by Peter Banner, an English architect and 
builder, of whom little is known. The wooden capi- 
tals of the steeple are the handiwork of Solomon 
Willard, the architect of Bunker Hill Monument. 
The mason-work was under the supervision of Bena- 
jah Brigham. It was the intention of the Building 
Committee to use common bricks; but better coun- 
sels prevailed, and face bricks were employed. The 
building, now seen in its original red-brick dress, was 
newly painted in 1906. At that time, to quote from a 
recent writer, "the sympathetically toned gray of 
the body of the Church, with its white trimmings, 
combined to give a pearly effect, which could not but 
convey to the coarsest apprehension the fact that 
this Church was a pearl of great price for Boston." 

Henry James, the American novelist, described its 
style of architecture as "perfectly felicitous." "Its 
spire," he said, "recalls Wren's bold London exam- 
ples, like the comparatively thin echo of a far-away 
song; playing its part, however, for harmonious effect 
as perfectly as possible." Mr. James regarded this 
Church building as "the most interesting mass of 
brick and mortar in America." The weather-vane, 
which crowns the spire, is two hundred and seventeen 
feet above the street level. Many will recall the thrill- 
ing sight of a steeple- jack, engaged in regilding this 
vane a few years ago. It was not originally intended 
that the edifice should have a spire. But the Building 

116 




PARK STREET CHURCH 

Showing Fence and Sidewalk along the Common, Horse-Car Tracks 

in Tremont Street, and the Paddock Ehns in front of the 

Granary Burying-Ground 



PARK STREET CHURCH 

Committee yielded to the prevailing sentiment that 
a Church occupying such a prominent site should be 
thus ornamented. And for more than a century the 
graceful spire has remained intact, defying the fury 
of winter storms; although it was observed to sway 
considerably during the great gale which destroyed 
Minot's Ledge Light House in the middle of the last 
century.^ 

The Park Street Church Society was organized at 
the mansion of William Thurston, a well-known at- 
torney, on Bowdoin Street, February 27, 1809; and 
in that house the first religious exercises of the new 
Society were held. The Corner-Stone of the Church 
building was laid May 1, 1809; and the total cost of 
the latter was somewhat over seventy thousand dol- 
lars. The Dedication Sermon was preached by the 
Reverend Doctor Edward Dorr Griffin, January 10, 
1810; and he was installed as Pastor, July 31, 1811. 

Mr. Lindsay Swift, in his "Literary Landmarks of 
Boston," wrote that Park Street Church is an im- 
portant strategic point; and that "all roads lead to 
Rome, except in Boston, where they lead to, or cer- 
tainly from this convenient centre of the City's life." 
For many years the corner of Tremont and Park 
Streets has been a rendezvous, and a point of de- 
parture, especially for strangers. 

The origin of the name "Brimstone Corner," some- 
times applied to this locality, has been attributed to 

» April 21, 1851. 

117 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

the fervid doctrines preached within the walls of the 
Church. The true source of that name appears to be 
the historic fact that brimstone, for use in making 
gunpowder, was stored in the building during the 
War of 1812. There is also a tradition that in the 
early days of this Church, sulphur was sprinkled on 
the sidewalk near by, to attract the attention of way- 
farers. In this building were founded the American 
Education Society (1815), the Prison Reform Society, 
and the American Temperance Society (1826). 

On the Fourth of July, 1832, the song "America" 
was heard in public for the first time, at a children's 
celebration in Park Street Church. The author, Sam- 
uel Francis Smith, then a theological student at An- 
dover, Massachusetts, had composed poetry from his 
childhood. Inspired by the words of a patriotic Ger- 
man hymn, he determined to produce an anthem 
which should manifest the love felt by him for his own 
country. " Seizing a scrap of paper, he began to write, 
and in half an hour the words stood upon it substan- 
tially as they are sung to-day." * 

On Sunday forenoon, November 24, 1895, one of 
the workmen engaged in excavating for the Tremont 
Street Subway, almost under the front wall of Park 
Street Church, probably struck his pickaxe into a 
main water-pipe, which burst; and the water shot up 
with such force that it broke the window glass in the 
minister's study, ruining its furnishings, and covering 

* C. A. Browne, The Story of Our National Ballads. 

118 



PARK STREET CHURCH 

with mud its carpet and luxurious upholstery. Fears 
were entertained that the foundations of the building 
had been weakened. At the following evening service 
the minister told the members of his congregation 
that it was an outrage to permit the carrying on of 
such work at the very portals of the Church on a Sun- 
day. And with natural righteous indignation he re- 
ferred to the Subway as "an infernal hole," in more 
than one sense. "And who is the Boss in charge of 
this work.f*" he demanded. Then after a pause, he 
added, "It is the Devil!" 

In 1809, when Park Street Church was built, Bos- 
ton still preserved the appearance of an old English 
market-town. No curbstones separated the streets 
from the sidewalks. The cows still browsed on the 
Common, and the Town Crier made his proclama- 
tions. There were then but two houses of more than 
one story on the present Tremont Street. "Colon- 
nade Row had not been built, and Boston was a city 
of gardens. There were only a few residences on Bea- 
con Hill: its western slope was a series of terraces. 
The business section of to-day still retained its resi- 
dential character, with its old-fashioned gardens, 
trees and churches." ^ 

In 1902 Park Street Church and its site were sold 
for one and a quarter million dollars to a syndicate of 
business men, who proposed to erect in its stead a 
sky-scraper ofBce building. Thereupon a committee 

^ The Preservation of Park Street Church. Boston, 1903. 

119 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

of influential persons was formed, whose object was 
the preservation of the Church property. It was 
justly claimed that the whole aspect of the Common 
and of the Granary Burial-Ground would be irre- 
trievably marred by the destruction of this impressive 
landmark. The committee doubtless reflected the 
prevailing sentiment of the community, in their plea 
that the preservation of the Church would avert a 
severe blow to the architectural beauty of the City. 
And they maintained with reason that the building 
could be made to serve as an important centre for 
educational and civic work. Influenced, it may be, 
by the trend of public opinion, the members of the 
syndicate failed to meet a condition of the transfer; 
namely, that they should pay three hundred thou- 
sand dollars of the purchase money within a specified 
time. Therefore it was announced in April, 1903, that 
the preservation of the Church was assured. The 
published account of the Semi-Centennial Celebra- 
tion of the founding of Park Street Church, held in 
1859, contains these eloquent words : " For nearly half 
a century this majestic spire has withstood the burn- 
ing heat of the summer's sun, and the freezing cold of 
inclement winters. The storms have raged and north- 
west winds have roared around it; gales which have 
uprooted the massive elms of our magnificent Com- 
mon, have passed it unheeded; even the earthquake's 
shock, and the lightning's fiery blast have shaken, 
yet spared it. And Time, old Time, which subdues 

120 



PARK STREET CHURCH 

all things, has laid a gentle hand upon its head. What 
time and the elements have suffered to endure, let man 
preserve!'* 

'*I love to stop before the beautiful Park Street 
Church spire," said the Reverend J. Edgar Park, in 
an Artillery Election Sermon, delivered in the New 
Old South Church, June 7, 1920, "almost the last 
hold that the ancient town of Boston has upon the 
cosmopolitan city; a spire that speaks still of the old 
residential Beacon Street, and of the days when its 
bell called across the Common to its congregation to 
gather in their meeting-house, to worship the God of 
the Pilgrim Fathers. Here I feel that I am standing on 
one of the most historic and beautiful spots, not only 
in this country, but in the whole world." 

All the old meeting-houses of Boston, if we agree 
with an opinion expressed by former Mayor J. V. C. 
Smith, M.D., in the year 1853, such as Park Street 
Church, the Old South, and a few others with spires, 
were superior in architectural beauty to the more 
modern edifices of higher cost. For, says our critic, 
"the genius that is among us, ready to be exercised 
in the Metropolis of New England, seems fated to be 
smothered by the overruling determination of old 
women and Deacons!" 

When a Church was to be built in Boston, it was 
customary to have a committee appointed. And 
oftentimes no two of any such a committee "had a 
rational notion of what should, or should not be 

121 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

adopted in a plan. However classical, beautiful, or 
grand the artist may have been in his projection, each 
one of the sapient conservators on the committee 
must have a whim gratified, even if it is at the expense 
of the artist's reputation. Botch after botch follows, 
and when the building is fairly completed, they are all 
laughed at for their stupidity, and condemned for 
their vulgarity!" 

If the learned gentleman could have seen some of 
Boston's Church edifices of comparatively recent 
years, he might well have modified his above-quoted 
naive utterances. 



THE ESTATES NUMBERED EIGHTEEN 

AND TWENTY ON THE SOUTH 

SIDE OF BEACON STREET 

Within a few years after the founding of Boston, the 
Town granted to the Reverend John Wilson (1588- 
1663), pastor of the First Church, about an acre of 
land, which had previously been a part of the Com- 
mon. This land was "bounded with the Burying 
Place on the south, and with the Towne's Common 
and highway on the west, north and east," as it was 
then fenced in. 

The same lot was sold by Mr. Wilson to James 
Oliver, a merchant, October 8, 1661, " for 35 Pounds 
certain, and 40 shillings a year." ^ This property ap- 
pears to have included the sites of several of the upper 
houses on Park Street, previously mentioned, and of 
all those on the south side of Beacon Street between 
the Athenaeum Building and the Common. The lot 
next to the Amory-Ticknor house on the east was sold 
by the Town agents to Thomas Amory in March, 
1801. This lot had a frontage of fifty-six feet on Bea- 
con Street, and extended southwesterly one hundred 
and thirty-four feet to the Burying-Ground. Mr. 
Amory transferred the estate in February, 1807, to 
the Misses Mary and Sarah Payne, twin daughters of 

1 Suffolk Deed, Lib. 3, Fol. 489. 

123 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

William Payne, Esq. Two brick houses were soon 
after erected on the lot. For more than thirty years 
this property remained in the possession of members 
of the Payne and allied families. Among the later 
occupants of these houses were James K. Mills, a 
dry-goods merchant, Dr. Henry G. Clark, and the 
Honorable Harvey Jewell (1820-81). The last-named 
was a graduate of Dartmouth College in 1844, and 
served for several years as Speaker of the Massachu- 
setts House of Representatives. While holding this 
position, he sustained a reputation for able and im- 
partial rulings. A man of scholarly tastes, he owned 
"a magnificent library, stored with the choicest and 
most valuable gems of literature." His brother, the 
Honorable Marshall Jewell, was Governor of Con- 
necticut in 1869-72, and afterward United States 
Minister to Russia. Mr. Harvey Jewell was engaged 
in the practice of law in Boston. He was an enthu- 
siastic fisherman, and an expert in the capture of 
striped bass off the rocks at Swampscott, where he 
had a summer cottage. 

Dr. Henry Grafton Clark, who sold this estate to 
Mr. Jewell in 1873, was a well-known practitioner of 
Boston, who devoted much time and thought to mat- 
ters concerning the public health. He was the first 
incumbent of the oflSce of City Physician, which he 
held from 1847 until 1880. 



NUMBER SIXTEEN BEACON STREET 

Adjoining the Raymond Building on the north, there 
is still to be seen in the year 1921 a small, three-sto- 
ried, brick dwelling-house, numbered sixteen on Bea- 
con Street. Nestled in between two lofty structures, 
it seems to shrink from public view, as if abashed by 
the superior dimensions of its stately neighbors. In 
its rear an iron gate stands between a tiny, brick- 
paved back yard and an alleyway leading to Park 
Street alongside the Union Club House. This is the 
last house on this portion of Beacon Street to be oc- 
cupied as a residence. It was built by Robert Fletcher 
about the year 1808, and was sold by him to Rufus G. 
Amory soon after. The premises are described ^ as a 
parcel of land with the buildings thereon "situate 
back of Bacon Street, beginning at the house occupied 
by Samuel Willard, as said Fletcher's tenant; in the 
middle of the partition wall built by Christopher 
Gore between the house which he now occupies and 
the residence of the said Willard." In December, 
1827, this estate was bought by Chester Harding, the 
well-known portrait painter, who lived there about 
two years. He was a native of Conway, Massachu- 
setts. When he was fourteen years old, his father 
moved to central New York, and settled in Madison 

1 Suffolk Deeds, Uh. 228. Fol. 160. 

125 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

County which was at that time an uninhabited wil- 
derness. Here they built a log cabin, and reclaimed a 
patch of land for cultivation. In 1813 Chester Hard- 
ing enlisted as a drummer in the army, and marched 
with the militia to the border of the Saint Lawrence 
River. He next became a travelling peddler and af- 
terward found employment in a chair factory at 
Caledonia, a village in Livingston County. And here 
he met his future wife, Caroline Woodruff. A year 
or two later, in search of more congenial work, he 
tramped afoot to the head waters of the Allegheny 
River, where he took passage on a raft for Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania. After tarrying there awhile, he re- 
turned through the wilds to Caledonia, having no 
guide but the blazed trees. On this trail he saw so 
many bears, wolves, and deer that he would hardly 
turn to look at them. Returning to Pittsburgh with 
his wife and child, he found occupation as a sign- 
painter. Having met there an artist named Wilson, 
he became interested in the latter's work; and this 
meeting completely changed his prospects. Finding 
that he had an aptitude for portrait-painting, he be- 
came absorbed in this new vocation, and exhibited so 
much talent that his portraits found a ready sale at 
twenty -five dollars each. After a course at the Phila- 
delphia Academy of Design, he went abroad and set 
up a studio in London. On his return to this country 
he settled in Boston. And "to that city," he said, "I 
feel that I owe more than to any other place. More 

126 



NUMBER SIXTEEN BEACON STREET 

of my professional life has been spent there than any- 
where else. And it is around it that my most grateful 
recollections cluster." In the latter part of the sum- 
mer of 1830 he exchanged his house at Number Six- 
teen Beacon Street for one at Springfield, Massachu- 
setts, which was his home in later years. 

Following Mr. Harding, the estate was owned 
successively by Adoniram Chandler, a stereotype 
founder, of New York, and Emily Wolcott, of Boston. 
The latter sold it, November 24, 1863, to Levi Bart- 
lett, a Boston merchant, who had occupied it many 
years before. Thereafter it became by inheritance 
the property of his daughter Martha, who married 
Dr. Henry C. Angell. They made their home there 
for about half a century. By the terms of Mrs. An- 
gell 's will the estate passed to the American Unitarian 
Association. The walls of the various rooms were 
covered by valuable paintings, collected abroad. 
There were several landscapes by Corot, and as many 
by his contemporary rival, Daubigny. Other famous 
French artists of the nineteenth century there repre- 
sented were Claude Monet, Jean Francois Millet, 
Troyon, Diaz, and Dupre. There were also paintings 
by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Turner. About forty 
choice pictures of this collection were bequeathed by 
Mrs. Angell to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The 
Angell house naturally became a favorite resort of 
artists. And while a love of the beautiful in art was a 
prominent characteristic of both Mrs. Angell and her 

127 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

husband, they were also devoted to music, and wel- 
comed music-loving friends to their hospitable abode. 
Passing through a room whose walls were adorned 
with engravings, one reached a cosy little sanctum in 
the rear, where Dr. Angell was wont to entertain his 
more intimate friends. William Howe Downes, the 
art critic, in describing some of the pictures in this 
house, mentioned a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
which was in poor condition, but capable of restora- 
tion. This picture was a likeness of Lady Caroline 
Ponsonby (1785-1828) in her childhood. She was a 
daughter of the third Earl of Bessborough, and the 
author of several popular romances. She married in 
1805 William Lamb, afterward Lord Melbourne. Of 
the American pictures in the Angell collection, ac- 
cording to Mr. Downes, the only one of importance 
is the work of Frank Duveneck. It is the portrait of 
a solemn, bespectacled old Professor, who looks at 
you through his glasses with an inscrutable air. *'A 
flawless gem of art is Troyon's Landscai>e. It is as 
naturalistic a painting of open air and sunshine as one 
will find anywhere. It is a miracle, the airness of it! 
It makes you happy to look at it, and you want to 
whoop for joy!" 

In the autumn of 1919 the Angell house was re- 
constructed and adapted for use as an annex of the 
American Unitarian Association Building. 

A door on the west side of the front entrance, open- 
ing from the sidewalk, and overhung by the second 

128 



NUMBER SIXTEEN BEACON STREET 

story, marks the place of access to a passageway, for- 
merly on land of Dr. Henry G. Clark, and used as a 
cow lane. 

The entire building has been renovated, and the 
windows of the lower floor are of an old-fashioned 
type, having small panes. The Unitarian Book-Room 
and the ofl5ces of the "Christian Register" occupy 
this floor. Next above are the quarters of the Reli- 
gious Educational Society; and the upper stories are 
provided with accommodations for the clergy. 

Dr. Angell, after graduating at the Hahnemann 
Medical College in 1855, studied for three years at 
the University of Vienna. On his return to Boston, he 
became prominent as an eye specialist, and was for 
twenty years Professor of Ophthalmology at the 
Boston University Medical School. In 1882 he was 
chosen President of the Philharmonic Society. 



NUMBERS TWELVE AND FOURTEEN 
BEACON STREET 

A LOT belonging to the Town, having a frontage of 
fifty-six feet on Beacon Street, and running back to 
the Burial-Ground, was acquired in 1801 by William 
Payne, a broker, and his maiden sisters, Mary and 
Sarah. The site of the premises is between the Angell 
house and the Athenaeum lot. Here the Paynes built 
a large double house, with an archway through the 
centre, leading to a stable in the rear. Originally the 
entrances were within, on either side of the archway. 
Later the houses were joined by the removal of a par- 
tition wall. Mr. Payne's brokerage office was in the 
Exchange Coffee House Building on State Street. 
His name first appears as a resident of Beacon Street 
in the Directory of 1809. The easterly house came 
later into the possession of John Torrey Morse, Esq. 
And as early as 1866 it was owned and occupied by 
Charles Merriam, Esq., the railroad magnate. The 
westerly house became the home of the family of 
James K. Mills, who lived there until 1858, when 
the property was bought by Charles O. Whitmore, a 
well-known merchant. In 1886 the City leased both 
houses, which then belonged to the Lexington Build- 
ing Association, and there brought together a num- 
ber of municipal departments. These lots are now the 
site of the American Congregational Association's 
Building. 



THE ATHENiEUM LOT 

Number Ten and a Half Beacon Street 

The Boston Athen^um had its origin in the Anthol- 
ogy Club, which was founded in 1804. Reading- 
Rooms were established in Joy's Building, Congress 
Street, January 1, 1807; and in the following month 
the Anthology trustees were incorporated by an Act 
of the Legislature, as a body politic under the name 
of the Proprietors of the Boston Athenaeum. In June, 
1822, the books and other property of the Institution 
were removed to the former mansion of James Per- 
kins, Esq., on Pearl Street, and there remained for 
about twenty years. At the close of that period the 
locality had become almost wholly occupied by mer- 
cantile buildings, and a strong sentiment developed 
in favor of removal. In 1845 a lot on Tremont Street 
was purchased. This was soon after sold, and on De- 
cember 1 of the same year the Proprietors bought of 
Edward B. Phillips, Esq., the former pasture lot of 
his grandfather, Lieutenant-Governor William Phil- 
lips, together with four brick dwelling-houses stand- 
ing thereon. The lot has a frontage of one hun- 
dred and twenty-four feet on Beacon Street, and is 
bounded by the Granary Burial-Ground in the rear. 
The Corner-Stone of the present edifice was laid 
April 27, 1847, and the books and art treasures were 
removed thereto in July, 1849. Among the more pre- 
cious acquisitions of the Athenaeum are many volumes 

131 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

formerly in the possession of George Washington. 
These were procured through the generosity of sev- 
enty gentlemen of Boston and Salem, who contrib- 
uted fifty dollars apiece for that object.^ 

1 Barrett Wendell, Litt.D., The Athmaura Centennial. 



THE MOLINEAUX MANSION-HOUSE 
ESTATE 

On July 14, 1760, William Molineaux, a Boston mer- 
chant, bought of John Alford, of Charlestown, a piece 
of land having a frontage of one hundred feet on 
Beacon Street, and running back due north three 
hundred and sixty-seven feet. It was bounded on the 
west by a passageway leading to the Beacon, as shown 
on a plan recorded with the original deed; and on the 
northwest by the summit of the hill. The price paid 
was seven hundred and eleven pounds, two shillings, 
and three pence. This lot was a part of the large es- 
tate of Robert Turner, a shoemaker, and one of the 
early townsmen, who owned eight acres on Beacon 
Hill.^ On this commanding site the new owner built 
one of the most pretentious dwelling-houses in the 
town. 

William Molineaux was a distinguished merchant 
of Boston. He was of French Huguenot ancestry; and 
during the years immediately before the Revolution 
he attained distinction as an ardent patriot. He was 
one of a group of prominent citizens, who were wont 
to gather in private houses, there to devise measures 
which proved to be the forerunners of a united oppo- 

* N. I. Bowditch, Gleaner Articles, page 92. 

133 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

sition to the oppressive policy of the British Crown. 
He was therefore closely associated with Samuel 
Adams, John Hancock, James Otis, Joseph Warren, 
and other leading patriots. Mr. Molineaux was an 
influential member of the Sons of Liberty, an organ- 
ization founded in 1776 or thereabout. He was also 
active in the work of the Committee of Correspond- 
ence from its origin in 1772; and was associated with 
Paul Revere and many others who formed the person- 
nel of the Boston Tea Party. Notable among the en- 
terprises which enlisted the aid of this public-spirited 
citizen was the establishment of Spinning Schools, 
which proved of value in developing this branch of 
industry in the community. The Town voted, April 
4, 1769, that the sum of two hundred pounds "be 
given Mr. William Mullineux, to enable him to pur- 
chase Spinning Wheels, Cards, and to procure con- 
venient places and Appartments for carrying on the 
Spinning Business, and a sufficient number of Spin- 
ning Mistresses, well skilled and experienced in the 
Art and Mistery of spinning Wool into good Yarn; he 
the said William Mullineux giving Bond to the Town 
for his finding a sufficient number of good Spinning 
Wheels and Cards . . . and of persons thoroughly 
skilled in the said business, to teach and instruct such 
as are, or shall be, desirous to learn it; & for supply- 
ing sufficient Quantities of Wool fit for the purpose 
aforesaid, while learning; all at the proper Cost and 
Charge of the said William Mullineux." 

134 



THE MOLINEAUX MANSION-HOUSE ESTATE 

The Molineaux homestead, which was situated on 
the western corner of Bowdoin and Beacon Streets, 
now a part of the State-House grounds, was acquired 
by Charles Ward Apthorp, of New York, who was 
administrator of the estate. The homestead was con- 
fiscated under an Act passed in 1781 by the General 
Court, "to provide for the payment of Debts due 
from Absentees." On June 17, 1782, it was sold by 
the Commonwealth for eight hundred and fifty 
pounds sterling to Daniel Dennison Rogers, a mer- 
chant, of Boston, who there made his home for about 
forty years. By his will, dated August 1, 1823, the 
property was bequeathed to his wife, Elizabeth 
Rogers. 

Mr. Molineaux's store was described as being op- 
posite to the east end of Faneuil Hall. He advertised in 
the "Boston Gazette," October 31, 1757, that he then 
had on hand and for sale "a large assortment of Iron- 
mongery, Sadlery, Braizery and Cutlery Wares. Also 
tenpenny nails at Seven Shillings per thousand; best 
London Pewter, at One Shilling and Five Pence per 
Pound; and other Goods in Proportion." William 
Molineaux was Mr. Apthorp's business agent, and 
in that capacity he rented the latter's warehouses on 
Wheelwright's, now Foster's Wharf, to the British 
authorities, for their use as barracks. 

Charles Ward Apthorp was the eldest son, and one 
of eighteen children of Charles Apthorp, Paymaster 
and Commissary of the British land and naval forces 

135 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

in North America. He was intimately connected with 
the administration of pubHc affairs in the Province. 
The following Notice appeared in the "Boston Eve- 
ning Post," July 29, 1765: "All Persons having Ac- 
counts open in New England with Charles Ward Ap- 
thorp and Company, are desired, as soon as may be, 
to adjust and settle the same. And those that are in- 
debted to the said Company are desired, as speedily 
as possible, to pay their respective Ballances." The 
above-named Company "hope that none will lay 
them under a Necessity of taking any Method that 
may be disagreeable; which they must unavoidably 
do, if not soon satisfied." 

The Molineaux mansion was situated a little south 
of the former Beacon Hill Place, now included in the 
State-House grounds. It was a large double house, of 
a type then popular abroad. On either side were a 
stable and wood-house; and between them a long 
flight of stone steps led up to the main entrance. The 
estate was sold at auction in 1833, and the house soon 
after removed.^ 

On November 9, 1802, Daniel Dennison Rogers 
sold the northerly portion of his land, "being about 
eighty feet of the depth of his garden," to William 
Thurston, Esq., who built thereon, two years later, a 
large three-storied, swell-front house, which became 
a conspicuous landmark in 1811, or thereabout, when 
a large part of the hill had been removed, leaving the 

* Shurtleff 's History of Boston. 

136 



THE MOLINEAUX MANSION-HOUSE ESTATE 

dwelling perched high in the air. A view of this house 
is shown in the "Memorial History of Boston," iv, 
64. It was taken down within a year or two there- 
after. 

Mr. Rogers was a native of Exeter, New Hamp- 
shire. Instead of attending college, he entered upon a 
business career at an early age. He came to Boston 
soon after the departure of the British troops in 
March, 1776. During many years he dispensed hos- 
pitality at his Beacon Street mansion in the lavish 
style of those days. 

At or near the site of the Molineaux house, and 
nearly opposite to the Angell residence, there stood, 
at the time of the Civil War, and for thirty years 
thereafter, a one-storied building, occupied at one 
time by William H. Henderson, who there conducted 
a grocery business; and a sign over the door on the 
Bowdoin Street side served to remind the public of 
that fact. Mr. Henderson was succeeded by the firm 
of J. B. Clapp & Company. Later tenants were 
Messrs. Henry and Julius Koopman, dealers in an- 
tiques and bric-a-brac, who remained there until 1893. 
There is an excellent picture of the building, as it ap- 
peared in 1880, in the Collection of Views of Beacon 
Hill, at the Boston Athenaeum. A striking feature 
of the picture is a prominent sign, bearing the leg- 
end: "Clapp's West End Shaker Bitters. The Liver 
Cleaner." 

The lot whereon the building stood was taken by 
137 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

the Commonwealth, to form a part of the State- 
House grounds, under the provisions of an Act of the 
Legislature, June 29, 1894; and the old structure was 
soon after demolished. 



THE BOWDOIN MANSION-HOUSE 
ESTATE 

By virtue of a deed bearing the date June 3, 1756, 
John Erving, of Boston, sold to James Bowdoin a lot 
of land bounded southeasterly in front on Beacon 
Street, one hundred and thirty-seven feet; south- 
westerly on land formerly of the widow Rogers; and 
northwesterly on land of Mrs. Middlecott, sixty- 
seven feet, to Mr. Lynde's Corner where a locust tree 
then stood; with a dwelling-house and other build- 
ings.^ Here, at the eastern corner of Beacon and Bow- 
doin Streets, Governor Bowdoin made his home. 
John Erving (1693-1786) was of Scottish lineage, and 
became one of the most prominent of American mer- 
chants. He was Colonel of the Boston Regiment, and 
a member of the Governor's Council for twenty years. 
Being in sympathy with the Loyalist element in the 
community, he retired from public life at the out- 
break of the Revolution. His daughter, Elizabeth, 
married Governor Bowdoin. In September, 1765, 
Colonel Erving served on a committee to wait upon 
the Honorable Adam Gorden, M.P., who was then on 
a tour in America. The committee was charged with 
felicitating his lordship, in the name of the Town, 
upon his safe arrival; and was instructed to bespeak 
his kind influence in favor of the Town and Province; 

* Gleaner Articles, No. 39. 

139 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

especially in regard to the new Parliamentary Regu- 
lations, which so nearly affected the Rights, as well as 
the Trade of the American Colonies; and which had 
created such universal uneasiness among His Majes- 
ty's loyal subjects on this continent. 

Again, in April, 1776, the Honorable John Erving 
was chosen one of a committee to draw up Resolu- 
tions, expressing the gratitude felt by the people of 
Boston toward those patriots on the other side of the 
water, whose endeavors had secured the Liberties of 
America by the happy Repeal of the Stamp Act. 

The Bowdoin Mansion, as well as the adjoining 
Bromfield house, was set back from the street, and was 
reached by a jQight of stone steps. A spacious garden 
extended over the brow of the hill, and down its north- 
ern declivity as far as the present Ashburton Place. 

The Honorable James Bowdoin, LL.D. (1726-90), 
Harvard, 1745, was of French Hugenot ancestry. He 
was President of the Constitutional Convention of 
Massachusetts, and served two years as Governor. 
In the latter capacity he showed great resolution in 
quelling Shays's Rebellion. Governor Bowdoin was 
the first President of the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences; and from him Bowdoin College de- 
rived its name. He was described by the celebrated 
traveller and patriot, Jean Pierre Brissot de Warville, 
"a brisk little Frenchman," who visited the United 
States in 1778, as "a man of universal talents, com- 
bining the virtues of a magistrate with profound eru- 

140 



THE BOWDOIN MANSION-HOUSE ESTATE 

dition; as a public servant, he always retained the 
confidence of his fellow citizens." By his will, dated 
March 23, 1789, Governor Bowdoin devised the Man- 
sion-House estate, including a portion of the land 
formerly belonging to his father-in-law, John Erving, 
to his son, James Bowdoin, Junior; reserving the use 
of the same for Madam Bowdoin during her life. 

James Bowdoin, Junior (1752-1811), after grad- 
uating at Harvard in 1771, at the age of nineteen, 
went abroad, and passed a year at Oxford Univer- 
sity. He was with General Washington on Dorchester 
Heights, March 17, 1776; and crossed over to Boston 
with the Commander-in-Chief on that day, which 
marked the departure of the British soldiers, and of 
the large company of aristocratic Loyalists who ac- 
companied them. James Bowdoin, Junior, was a man 
of wealth, liberal education, and scholarly tastes. He 
gave much attention to agriculture, and to the breed- 
ing of fine horses and cattle. In public life he served 
as Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States 
to Spain, and as Associate Minister to the French 
Court. Under his will, dated June 4, 1811, he be- 
queathed his works of art, together with his library 
and philosophical appliances, to Bowdoin College. 
The Beacon Street homestead passed to his nephew, 
James Temple Bowdoin. The Bowdoin line is extinct 
in Boston, but the name is perpetuated in the College, 
and in three public thoroughfares within the Metro- 
politan District. 

141 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

At one time a keen controversy developed re- 
garding the ownership of the estate, between James 
Temple Bowdoin and the authorities of Bowdoin 
College. Choosing a time when the mansion was 
vacant, a large body of workmen, acting in behalf of 
the College, took possession of the premises and 
hastily constructed a temporary wooden building. 
Thereupon the agents of Mr. Bowdoin proceeded to 
remove the obnoxious structure; and these proceed- 
ings met with public approval, as a distinct allevia- 
tion of the monotony of everyday life.^ On Octo- 
ber 27, 1843, James Temple Bowdoin, Gentleman, 
sold the homestead to Theodore Chase, merchant, 
for $9030.30. Mr. Chase occupied the mansion for 
about seventeen years; and his widow continued to 
reside there until her death in 1884. On May 19th of 
that year, her sons, Theodore and George Bigelow 
Chase, conveyed the premises to the American Uni- 
tarian Association. 

The front of the Bowdoin house has been de- 
scribed as having a covering of "smoothened deal 
boards." The main entrance and the window frames 
were ornamented with carvings. A spacious window 
over the front door afforded an excellent vantage- 
point for the display of a large illuminated trans- 
parency, with suitable inscriptions, during patriotic 
evening celebrations or other popular demonstra- 
tions. 

^ Gleaner Articles, No. 39. 



THE BROMFIELD HOMESTEAD 

Adjoining the Bowdoin estate was the residence of 
Edward Bromfield, Junior (1695-1756), a prominent 
merchant, who held important official positions in 
the Province and Town. These premises were a part 
of the possessions of Robert Turner, and descended, 
through his son-in-law, John Fayerweather, to Wil- 
liam Allen. ^ 

In May, 1731, the estate passed to Samuel Sew- 
all, merchant, for a consideration of seven hundred 
pounds sterling; together with all its fences, edifices, 
trees, waters, and water-courses. In February, 1742, 
it was bought by Mr. Bromfield, whose son, Edward, 
the third (1723-46), was noted at an early age for 
his scientific attainments and phenomenal versatility. 
The first organ made in America was the product of 
his hands, although he did net live to perfect it. 
The workmanship of the keys and pipes was said 
to have been extremely clever, surpassing anything 
of the kind that had ever come from England. More- 
over, he made microscopes of improved design, 
grinding the finest glasses. *'For nearly a century 
the sun still shone through a hole (in the shutter 
of an attic window) which he had cut for his solar 
microscopes. "2 

* Gleaner Articles, No. 7. 

* The Memorial History of Boston, iv, 510. 

143 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

In January, 1763, Abigail Bromfield, widow, and 
sole executrix of the will of Edward Bromfield the 
younger, sold the homestead to her son-in-law, Wil- 
liam Phillips, for £1333 and 6 shillings. 

The Honorable William Phillips (1750-1827) was 
a wealthy business man, of Boston, and a staunch 
patriot. The fact that he was familiarly known as 
"Billy Phillips" about town is doubtless evidence of 
his popularity. In like manner the American people 
love to designate two of their eminent historic per- 
sonages as "Abe" Lincoln and "Teddy" Roosevelt, 
without thought of detracting in the least from the 
dignity of their characters. At the beginning of the 
Revolution Mr. Phillips removed his family to Nor- 
wich, Connecticut, where they remained during the 
Siege, occupying a house which is still standing, the 
reputed birthplace of General Benedict Arnold. Mr. 
Phillips was a Deacon of the Old South Church for 
thirty years. He also served as a Representative; 
and as Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts for 
several years, during the administrations of Gov- 
ernors Strong and Brooks (1812-23). In the course 
of a eulogy delivered by the Reverend Doctor Wis- 
ner, of the Old South Church, the speaker remarked 
that "scarcely a measure had been adopted, or an 
association formed in the community, for the im- 
provement of the physical, intellectual, moral or 
spiritual condition of man, which had not received 
the liberal support of William Phillips." The two 

144 



THE BROIVIFIELD HOMESTEAD 

Academies at Andover and Exeter are enduring 
memorials of six members of the Phillips family, 
representing three generations. The last occupant 
of the Bromfield mansion was Jonathan Phillips 
(1778-1860), Hon. A. M. Harvard, 1818, a son of the 
Lieutenant-Governor; who succeeded to the estate. 
He was a member of the General Court, and served 
eflSciently as an Overseer of the Poor for ten years. 
Mr. Phillips was associated with his brother Ed- 
ward, under the firm name of J. & E. Phillips, dealers 
in hardware and dry goods. Among his benefactions 
was a gift of ten thousand dollars to the Boston 
Public Library. 

The Bromfield mansion was remarkable on ac- 
count of its size and dominant situation. It was 
built in 1722, and is shown on Bonner's Map of the 
same year. At that time there were but three houses 
on the upper side of Beacon Street, east of the present 
State-House lot, and near the summit of the hill. 
A description of the Bromfield house, as it appeared 
during the occupancy of Jonathan Phillips, is given 
in a "Memoir of the Life of Eliza S. M. Quincy" 
(Boston, 1861). "The house was of three stories, and 
richly furnished according to the fashion of the eight- 
eenth century. There were large mirrors in carved 
mahogany frames; and one apartment was hung with 
tapestry representing a stag hunt. Three steep 
flights of stone steps ascended from Beacon Street 
to the front of the mansion. And behind it was a 

145 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

paved courtyard, above which rose successive ter- 
races, filled with flowers and fruit trees. On the 
summit was a summer house, elevated higher than 
the roofs of the houses, which in 1861 formed Ash- 
burton Place, and commanding a panoramic view 
of the harbor and environs. The hill on which the 
mansion stood was levelled in 1845, at which time 
it was taken down; and the site is now marked by 
Freeman Place Chapel, and the adjoining houses on 
Beacon Street.'* 



THE HINCKLEY MANSION-HOUSE 

The Reveeend James Allen (1632-1710), son of a 
clergyman in Hampshire, England, came over to 
this country in 1662. He was the Minister of the 
First Church in Boston for forty-two years. A grad- 
uate of Oxford University, he served as a Fellow of 
Harvard College from 1692 to 1707. Mr. Allen be- 
came one of the largest land-owners in the commun- 
ity, his holdings including a large portion of the 
present West End in Boston. His homestead (being 
part of a tract of eighteen acres bequeathed to him 
in 1671 by James Penn, Ruling Elder of his Church) 
was on the east corner of Beacon and Somerset 
Streets.^ And there he lived in a two-storied stone 
house built by himself, and "maintained the style of 
a gentleman." His barn occupied the corner above- 
mentioned; and the house was placed about seventy 
feet to the eastward, on Beacon Street. 

On March 12, 1705, Mr. Allen deeded the property, 
including "the Mansion-House, with the land, mem- 
bers and appurtenances thereof," to his son, Jere- 
miah Allen, who became Treasurer of the Province 
in 1715. On the latter's death in 1741, the estate 
passed to his son, of the same name (d. 1755), and 
later was inherited by his grandson, James Allen, of 

* Gleaner Articles, No. 11. 

147 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

the four til generation from the emigrant ancestor.^ 
On December 20, 1799, the latter sold the homestead 
to his brother, Jeremiah, who held the office of High 
Sheriff of Suffolk County. After being in the posses- 
sion of members of the Allen family for nearly one 
hundred and forty years, the demesne was sold by 
James Allen, January 8, 1810, to David Hinckley, a 
Boston merchant, who took down the old stone 
house. And during or about the year 1814 he built 
a large double granite mansion on the premises, and 
occupied the westerly, corner portion, which fronted 
on Somerset Street. This mansion was at that time 
considered to be the finest dwelling-house in the 
town. 2 It was elaborately furnished, and filled with 
beautiful works of art, together with many costly 
statues and mirrors.' The progress of its building 
was interrupted by the War of 1812; and the venture 
must have been an expensive one at that time, when 
the cost of materials was high. The window glass 
and cornices were said to have been imported. 

This mansion was the scene of a tragic occurrence 
in July, 1820. Miss Anne Hinckley, daughter of 
David Hinckley, had taken a course of lessons in 
modern languages under the guidance of a young 
Neapolitan named Pietro Perodi, who had served 
in the Italian army, and who had arrived in Boston 

^ Gleaner Articles, No. 33. ^ The Memorial History of Boston, xv, 59. 
^ A full description of the interior of this house is given in some unpub- 
lished Reminiscences of Mrs. J. Mason Warren. 

148 



THE HINCKLEY MANSION-HOUSE 

some three years before. Here he obtained the 
entree of polite society, and had won the affection of 
Miss Hinckley. Their engagement had been for- 
mally announced, when it was discovered that he 
had made false representations regarding his an- 
tecedents. This fact, and her father's strong oppo- 
sition, caused the lady to break the engagement. 
Unable to regain her confidence, Perodi became des- 
perate. Repairing to the Hinckley home, he ran up 
to her chamber, where she was engaged with a dress- 
maker; and there, in her presence, he ended his life 
by the thrust of a dagger. Such is one account of 
the melancholy affair. A correspondent, Syphax Ter- 
tius, in a communication to the '* Boston Trans- 
cript," February 20, 1873, stated that the scene 
of the tragedy was the house of a friend, Mrs. Eliza- 
beth Davis, who kept a boarding-school at Number 
Three Somerset Place, now Allston Street, in the 
immediate neighborhood of the Hinckley residence. 
According to the above authority Miss Hinckley had 
fled to IVIrs. Davis's school, to avoid Perodi. 

On Mr. Hinckley's death in 1825, the property was 
inherited by his daughter. Not long after she mar- 
ried an Englishman named William Gill Hodgkinson. 
On April 25, 1832, the estate was bought by the Hon- 
orable Benjamin Crowninshield, a former Secretary 
of the Navy of the United States, for $38,500. He 
and the members of his family occupied the corner 
house on Somerset Street until his death in 1851. 

149 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

In the following year this house was acquired by 
the members of the Somerset Club, and was occupied 
by them for about twenty years. In 1872, or there- 
about, the Club bought the Sears mansion, at Forty- 
Three Beacon Street, built by David Sears in 1819. 
Its site is a part of the former large estate of John 
Singleton Copley, the distinguished American painter. 
The original mansion formed the western half of the 
present structure, and its entrance opened on a 
courtyard. Later, Mr. Sears built another house 
adjoining, on the east; the older dwelling being en- 
larged, and both forming the present double, swell- 
front edifice, facing the Common. The decorative 
carvings of the marble tablets, above the bow-win- 
dows are the handiwork of Solomon Willard, the 
architect of Bunker Hill Monument.^ In the rear of 
the old Copley domicile was a barn, which was used 
as a temporary hospital, where some of the wounded 
British officers were cared for after the Battle of 
Bunker HUl. 

The easterly portion of his estate, including the 
land, and "the large, elegant stone house and other 
buildings thereon standing," was sold by Mr. Hinck- 
ley, December 20, 1820, to Benjamin Wiggin, Gen- 
tleman, for forty thousand dollars. 

In 1825 the ownership passed to Joseph Peabody, 
Esq., of Salem, who gave it to his daughter as a 
wedding present, at the time of her marriage to 

* History of the Somerset Club. 

150 



THE HINCKLEY MANSION-HOUSE 

John L. Gardner, Senior, an enterprising young mer- 
chant in the East India trade. The house was the 
birthplace of his son, of the same name, whose widow 
occupies the well-known Italian palace in the Fen- 
way region. 

The Hinckley house was the residence of the 
Gardners for many years, and they retained pos- 
session of the property until 1871, when the Ameri- 
can Congregational Association bought both por- 
tions of the original mansion for $292,000. In 1904 
the whole edifice was removed, and a new building 
was erected and occupied by the Houghton & Dut- 
ton Company. 



THE SEARS ESTATE 

The two brick houses on the westerly corner of 
Somerset and Beacon Streets occupy land formerly 
belonging to John Fayerweather (d. 1712).^ The 
easterly half, including a wooden dwelling-house, 
was acquired in December, 1740, by Benjamin 
Green, merchant, "together with the garden, out- 
houses, buildings, easements and fences, ways, pas- 
sages, waters, watercourses, rights, members, profits, 
privileges, improvements, commodities and appur- 
tenances thereunto belonging." Mr. Green bought 
it for a residence, and was living there in 1747. 
One of the later owners was John Bowers, of Som- 
erset, Bristol County, Massachusetts, who had laid 
out Somerset Street in 1800, and had given it the 
name of his native town. In May, 1803, Mr. Bowers 
sold the property to David Sears, Senior, a rich mer- 
chant, "being the same house, stable, outhouses & 
land now in the occupation of said Sears, between 
Somerset Street and Deacon Phillips' land." Mr. 
Sears was one of the very few millionaires of his day. 
About the year 1815, his son, the Honorable David 
Sears (1787-1871), Harvard, 1807, built the two 
brick houses above-mentioned; and about ten years 
thereafter he built the westerly half of the stone 

1 Gleaner Articles, No. 37. 

152 



THE SEARS ESTATE 

mansion on Beacon Street, now occupied by the 
Somerset Club. The large fortune inherited by Mr. 
Sears had been amassed by his father in the China 
trade. David Sears, Junior, was a member of the 
State Senate, and an Overseer of Harvard College. 
Actuated by a desire to promote Christian Unity, he 
built a massive stone Chapel, overlooking Muddy 
River, in Longwood. This Chapel was patterned 
after the Parish Church of his Sears ancestors, in the 
ancient town of Colchester, Essex, England. His 
desire was to found a Union Church, where clergy- 
men of different denominations could officiate, and 
where sectarian distinctions were not to be. The 
edifice was dedicated June 30, 1862. The brick 
houses on the Somerset Street corner were the former 
home of the Boston City Club, and are still a part of 
the Sears estate. 



THE LLOYD MANSION-HOUSE 

At a short distance from Ashburton Place, down the 
incHne of Somerset Street, on the right-hand side, 
there formerly stood a double brick dwelling, which 
was built by the Honorable James Lloyd, Junior, 
about the year 1808. The site is now covered by the 
Suffolk County Court-House, and formed originally 
a part of the spacious garden of Dr. James Lloyd, 
Senior (1728-1810), an eminent surgeon, who had 
an extensive practice in this neighborhood for more 
than half a century. He was at one time President 
of the Massachusetts Medical Society; and as one 
of the consulting physicians of the Boston Dispen- 
sary (founded in 1796), his services were freely given 
to the poor without fee or reward. His son, above- 
mentioned (1769-1831), was a leading merchant, 
and a member of the United States Senate, who 
strove to prevent this Country from entering upon 
the War of 1812. When General Lafayette returned 
to Boston, to take part in the ceremony of laying 
the Corner-Stone of Bunker Hill Monument, he 
was entertained by Mr. Lloyd at the latter's man- 
sion. And during the forenoon of June 17, 1825, the 
Grand Master and Deputies of the Masonic Order 
escorted the General from that house to his place in 
the Procession. Senator Lloyd occupied the dwell- 

154 



THE LLOYD MANSION-HOUSE 

ing, at Number Twenty-Seven Somerset Street, until 
1827, when he removed to Philadelphia. The next 
occupant was Elijah Morse, a prominent lawyer, 
who resided there until his death in 1831. He was 
District Grand Master of the Society of Freemasons. 

The Lloyd Mansion was one of the old-fashioned 
kind, with solid walls and high ceilings. It was built 
to endure. "On the ground floor a large arched door, 
like the entrance to an armory, opened from the 
street into a passage-way leading to the court in the 
rear. This was used for provision and supply wagons; 
and here the cows were driven home in the after- 
noon. The chimneys were massive, and suggested 
wide and warm fire-places. The main entrance was 
up a long flight of stone steps, and under a generous 
porch." ^ 

By Mr. Morse's will, dated August 4, 1831, the 
dwelling-house, land, and appurtenances, valued at 
twelve thousand dollars, were left to his wife, Mary 
Morse. And on July 13, 1832, she conveyed the 
same "genteel premises" to Ebenezer Francis. 

For some years the building was used as a family 
hotel. In 1833 it was kept by a Mrs. Lydia Jackson, 
who soon afterward married the Reverend Lyman 
Beecher, the first minister of a church in Hanover 
Street. As late as 1872 it was run as an hotel under 
the name of the Somerset House. 

In June, 1847, Uriel Crocker bought of Jonathan 

* New England Historic-Genealogical Register, vol. 41, page 265. 1887. 

155 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

Preston, Gentleman, a three-storied, brick dwelling, 
numbered twenty-nine on Somerset Street, nearly- 
opposite Allston Street, being one of a block of three 
houses built by Mr. Preston on land formerly of 
Ebenezer Francis. Here Mr. Crocker lived for thirty- 
eight years, or until 1885, when the estate was taken 
as a part of the Court-House site. Uriel Crocker 
formed a partnership with Osmyn Brewster in the 
printing and publishing business. And in November, 
1886, Messrs. Crocker and Brewster celebrated the 
seventieth anniversary of their first meeting as ap- 
prentices in 1800. Mr. Crocker was the pioneer of 
this region, in the use of an iron-lever printing press. 



THE PADDOCK ELMS 

Around the corner on Tremont Street, alongside the 
Burying-Ground, fourteen noble English elms sprang 
from the sidewalk. Of majestic height, their wide- 
spread branches afforded a grateful shelter from the 
sun's glare. They were planted in 1762 by Captain 
Adino Paddock, Loyalist and coach-builder, whose 
workshop was across the way. And there they stood, 
braving the winter storms for more than a century un- 
til the year 1873, when they were ruthlessly cut down. 
While still fairly vigorous they fell under the dis- 
pleasure of City foresters, victims of the modern 
spirit of improvement, which gives little heed to his- 
toric sentiment and association with the past. 

Only two years before the removal of these trees, 
the Honorable Nathaniel B. Shurtleff , a former Mayor 
of Boston, thus wrote regarding them: "Far distant 
be the day when these old trees must be removed 
from the spot which they have so long occupied and 
ornamented! And may our City fathers ever regard 
them as among the cherished objects which must be 
preserved with the greatest care!" 

With the exception of the Great Elm, which was 
destroyed by a storm in February, 1876, but two 
trees are shown on the Common in Bonner's Map of 

157 



OLD PARK STREET AND ITS VICINITY 

1722. Both of these trees were on or near the line of 
Park Street Mall. It is evident that popular senti- 
ment was divided as to the expediency of removing 
the Paddock Elms. But public convenience, together 
with an appreciation of the need for better traffic con- 
ditions, finally prevailed over sentimental considera- 
tions. 

In the years 1824 and 1825 a forester named Ira 
Adams had the sole charge of the Common and the 
trees thereon. In view of the public interest in the 
history of the Paddock Elms, occasioned by their re- 
moval, Mr. Adams, who was then an octogenarian, 
published some reminiscences, which appeared in the 
form of a letter addressed to the editor of the "Bos- 
ton Transcript," March 9, 1874. Among those with 
whom he was wont to converse, while engaged in his 
work on the Common, was an old gentleman named 
Benjamin Callender, who in his younger days had 
carried on the business of a merchant tailor on State 
Street; and whose residence was on Common Street, 
near the head of the Mall. He was a great lover of 
trees, and remembered well the time when the Pad- 
dock Elms were set out. Mr. Paddock had them 
brought in from Milton, where they had been stored 
since their importation from England. When the elms 
were planted, he used as supports a lot of old axle- 
trees, which had accumulated in his carriage-shop 
near by. Mr. Adams was the forester who planted 
with his own hands the two rows of trees which arch 

158 



THE PADDOCK ELMS 

over the Charles Street Mall, with the exception of a 
very few at the extreme southerly end. 

Under the shade of the Paddock Elms the farmers 
sold dairy produce, which they had brought from the 
country in their market wagons. And here too their 
horses rested, and enjoyed their noonday provender. 



THE TREES ON THE COMMON 

Serious injury to the trees on the Common resulted 
from the great equinoctial gale of September, 1815, 
which raged with almost unexampled fury at inter- 
vals for two or three days. Perhaps the strongest 
evidence of the storm's violence was the overthrow of 
five of the Paddock Elms; the largest of these having 
a circumference of nearly eight feet. Eleven large 
trees on the line of Beacon Street were uprooted, and 
more than twenty stately elms on the Common were 
laid low. Vivid descriptions of the tempest's ravages 
appeared in the "Boston Gazette," the "Columbian 
Centinel," and other local newspapers. 

"It excites truly melancholy reflections," wrote 
one observer, "to see such noble trees torn up by the 
roots. . . . The injury done to the Mall, that superb 
Promenade, the pride and ornament of the Town, will 
be greatly lamented." Every building in Boston, it 
was stated, however situated, experienced more or 
less damage; many of them being unroofed. Battle- 
ments and balustrades were blown down, windows 
broken, and tiles, bricks, and timbers were hurled 
through the air in every direction. The uproar was 
terrific and appalling. Salt water from the ocean was 
borne forty miles inland by the wind, which was de- 
scribed as "an awful, tremendous blast." 

160 



TREES ON THE COMMON 

In response to a request for information about the 
elm trees on the Common, Frank William Rane, Esq., 
the State Forester, wrote as follows, in July, 1918: 
*' In looking over the trees in this neighborhood I find 
that there are but five which could have been planted 
by the elder Mayor Quincy; all others having either 
died or been taken off. There are three elms, one 
good-sized one, about center way on Park Street, and 
two more near Tremont Street, which may have been 
planted at that time. On the Common itself there are 
two more good-sized elms, one farther up toward the 
State House, and the other about midway, that would 
appear to have about the proper age alluded to.'* 

In regard to the causes which have led to the re- 
moval of so many of these trees, the State Forester 
mentions the depredations caused by insects and 
diseases, together with changes of the grades of 
streets and paths; the congestion of hordes of tramp- 
ing people; and gases from City pipes. All these have 
a deterrent effect upon tree growth. The feeding 
of trees has usually been the last consideration shown 
them. In these days, however, more careful study 
and attention are being given the subject. 

Dr. Holmes was accustomed to carry about in his 
pocket a string, wherewith to determine the girth of 
any especially large tree at home or abroad. "For," 
wrote he, "it is wonderful to note how people will lie 
about trees!" 



THE GINGKO TREE ON THE COMMON 

At a point about one hundred and fifty feet eastward 
from the Guild Memorial Steps, and at the apex of a 
grassy triangle, whereof two sides are formed by Bea- 
con Street Mall and a pathway leading to Winter 
Street, there stands a tall Gingko tree, far removed 
from its habitat in eastern Asia. Its name, we are 
told, signifies "Silver Apricot Tree" in the Chinese 
language. Its popular title is "Maidenhair Tree," on 
account of the similarity of its leaves to those of the 
maidenhair fern. 

The above-mentioned tree was transplanted, early 
in May, 1835, from the Gardiner Greene estate, 
which was situated in the region between Pemberton 
Square and Ashburton Place. When this property 
changed hands, it was specified that the Gingko tree 
should not be included in the sale; inasmuch as it was 
at that time the only one of its kind in the country, 
with the exception of a specimen at Hyde Park, a 
township on the Hudson River, near Poughkeepsie, 
New York. Accordingly this tree, which was then 
about forty feet in height, was transported to its 
present site in the Common on a low, four-wheeled 
truck, built for the purpose. Its removal excited gen- 
eral interest at that time. The tree has been over- 
shadowed by neighboring American elms; and the 
loss of many branches has detracted from its former 

162 



THE GINGKO TREE ON THE COMMON 

symmetry and beauty. It is to be hoped that this 
Asian exotic, now for many years a naturalized Amer- 
ican, may long continue to grace its conspicuous sta- 
tion on the brow of Beacon Hill. 

There is a majestic specimen of the Gingko family 
in the Public Garden. It stands at a distance of about 
forty feet southwesterly from the so-called Ether 
Monument. Another flourishing Gingko is to be 
seen, nearer the pond. In the public pleasure grounds 
of Tokyo, Japan, are some noble trees of this genus, 
fully one hundred feet high. According to naturalists 
the Gingko tree, when thriving in its native soil, 
bears a hard nut containing a kernel, resembling that 
of the apricot. This kernel has a delicate almond-like 
flavor, and is esteemed as a table delicacy by the Jap- 
anese. The German traveller and physician, Engel- 
brecht Kaempfer (1651-1716) wrote that it was an 
important ingredient in several Japanese dishes. And 
in the Far East these nuts were believed to have some 
therapeutic value. The Gingko is a hardy tree, and is 
said to be immune from the depredations of moths, 
beetles, and all other enemies. It bears no fruit until 
it has attained the age of thirty or forty years. 

In 1832 Dr. Alexander de Bunge, a distinguished 
Russian scientist and explorer, wrote that he had seen 
some beautiful specimens of the Gingko growing in gar- 
dens and near Buddhist temples in northern China. 
One of these had a girth of about forty feet; and the 
only other evidence of great age was its towering height. 

163 



ULMUS CAMPESTRIS VENERABILIS 

At a short distance above Joy Street, and close to the 
iron fence along Beacon Street Mall, there is a mas- 
sive English elm, which is known to have been grow- 
ing there for at least one hundred and forty years. 
It stands on a line leading directly north from the 
Gingko tree. An elaborate volume entitled "Cam- 
pestris Ulm," by Joseph Henry Curtis (Boston, 1910), 
contains an historical sketch of the life of this tree, 
and describes various events which have occurred al- 
most under its shade in past years. Since the tragic 
fall of its American cousin, the Great Elm, in 1876, 
this one has been the patriarch of the Common, and 
no rival claimant for that distinguished title has ap- 
peared. It is believed to have been planted in the 
autumn of 1780 by authority of the Selectmen in re- 
sponse to a petition of John Hancock at about the 
time of his inauguration as the first Governor of Mas- 
sachusetts under the Constitution. 



THE END 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Adams, Ira, 158. 

Adams, John Quincy, 64. 

Adams, Samuel, 20. 22, 48. 

Allen, Rev. James, 147. 

Allen, James, great-grandson of 
Rev. James, 147. 

Allen, Jeremiah, son of Rev. James, 
147. 

Allen, Jeremiah, great-grandson of 
Rev. James, 148. 

Allen, William, 143. 

Almshouse, the first, 32, 33; the 
second, 33-35; the third, 35, 44. 

"America," the song, 118. 

American Congregational Associa- 
tion's Building, 130. 

American Education Society. 118. 

American Temperance Society, 118. 

American Unitarian Association, 
127. 128, 142. 

Ames, Fisher, 87, 93; quoted on 
Samuel Dexter, 83. 

Amory, Jonathan, Jr., 79. 

Amory, Rufus G., 125. 

Amory, Thomas, 79, 81, 82, 123. 

Amory, Thomas Coffin, Jr., 93. 

Amory-Ticknor house, the, 81-97. 
See Ticknor. 

Angell, Dr. and Mrs. Henry C, 
127-29. 

Appleton, William, 106. 

Appleton, Mrs. William, 104. 

Apprentice system in medicine, 105. 

Apthorp, Charles, 135. 

Apthorp, Charles Ward, 135, 136. 

Armstrong, Samuel Turell, 49. 

Arnold, Howard Payson, his de- 
scription of Number Two Park 
Street, 56. 



Athenaeum, Boston, 131, 132. 
Atlantic Monthly, its quarters, 62, 63. 
Austin, Edward, 89. 

Bacon, George, 77. 

Banner, Peter, 116. 

Bartles, Edward, 37. 

Bartlett, Levi, 127. 

Baxter, Mr., 112. 

Beacon, on Beacon Hill, the first, 1; 
the second, 2, 3; description of, 4. 

Beacon Hill, early name, forms of, 
1, 8, 9; beacon on, 1-4; Monu- 
ment, 3, 6; description of, 4, 5; 
the three hills of, 6, 7; measures 
for preservation of, 7, 8; change 
in western side of, 8; as seen by a 
Londoner, 9, 10. 

Beacon Hill Monument, 3, 6. 

Beacon Street, between Somerset 
and Tremont Streets, 11; laying- 
out of, 11; in the early part of 
the eighteenth century, 12; value 
of property on, 13, 15; and 
Thomas Hancock's estate, 13- 
15; paving of, 14; widening of, 
14; first brick house on, 16; 
charm of, 17-19; Numbers Eight- 
een and Twenty, 123, 124; Num- 
ber Sixteen, 125-29; Numbers 
Twelve and Fourteen, 130; the 
Athenseum lot, 131, 132; the 
Molineaux mansion-house estate, 
133-38; the Bowdoin mansion- 
house estate, 139-42; the Brom- 
field homestead, 143-46; the 
Hinckley mansion-house, 147-51; 
the Lloyd mansion-house, 154- 
56. 



167 



INDEX 



Beecher, Rev. Lyman, 155. 

Belknap Street. See Joy Street. 

Bennett, quoted on the Almshouse, 
33. 

Bingham, Caleb, 115. 

Blackstone, William, 9, 12. 

Blake, George, 20. 

Blanchard, Frangois, 86. 

Boston, winter climate of, 31; in 
1809, 119. 

Boston Common. See Common. 

Bowditch, Nathaniel Ingersoll, 3, 
4, 13. 

Bowdoin, James, Sr., 139-41. 

Bowdoin, James, Jr., 141. 

Bowdoin, James Temple, 141, 142. 

Bowdoin College, 140, 142. 

Bowdoin estate, the, 139-42. 

Bowen, William, 2. 

Bowers, John, 152. 

Brackett, Mary, epitaph of, 49. 

Brewster, Osmyn, 156. 

Bridewell, the, 39, 40, 44. 

Bridgham, Henry, 32. 

Brigham, Benajah, 116. 

"Brimstone Corner," 117, 118. 

Bromfield, Abigail, 144. 

Bromfield, Edward, father and son, 
143. 

Bromfield homestead, the, 143-46. 

Brooks, Edward, 58. 

Brooks, John, 95. 

Brooks, Peter Chardon, 58, 62. 

Brown, Samuel, 35. 

Bulfinch, Charles, designer of Bea- 
con Hill Monument, 3; lays out 
Park Place (Park Street), 24. 

Bunker Hill, battle of. 70. 

Burying-Ground, Granary. See 
Granary Burying-Ground. 

Cabot, George, 58. 
Cabot, Mrs. J. Elliot, 73. 
Calhoun, Andrew, 115. ' 
Callender, Benjamin, 158. 



Carter, Catherine, her boarding- 
house, 82, 93. 

Cemetery. See Granary Burying- 
Ground. 

Center Hill. See Beacon Hill. 

Centery Hill. See Beacon Hill. 

Centinel Hill. See Beacon Hill. 

Gentry Hill. See Beacon Hill. 

Gentry Street. See Park Street. 

Century Street. See Park Street. 

Chandler, Adoniram, 127. 

Charles River, 7. 

Charles Street, the laying-out of, 7. 

Chase, Theodore, 142. 

Choate, Rufus, 90. 

Christian Register, oflSces of, 129. 

Christian Science Church, cradle of, 
57. 

Clapboard Street. See Joy Street. 

Clark, Dr. Henry Grafton, 124. 

Coast, Long, the, 26, 27. 

Cobb, Richard, 83. 

Common, Boston, 9, 10; iron fence 
of, 24; Park Street Mall, 24, 29; 
pigeons and squirrels of, 29; Tre- 
mont Street Mall, 30; games on, 
113; trees of, 160-64. 

"Constitution," frigate, 46. 

Cooper, Rev. William, 75. 

Copley, Singleton, 150. 

Copley's Hill, 6. 

Cotton Hill, 6. 

Court-House, Suffolk County, 154, 
156. 

Crocker, Uriel, 155, 156. 

Crowninshield, Anna Caspar, 72. 

Crowninshield, Benjamin W., 72, 
106, 149. 

Cunningham, Captain Nathaniel, 
estate, 13. 

Curtis, Joseph Henry, his book, 
"Campestris Ulm," 164. 



Davis, Elizabeth, 149. 
Davb, Isaac P., 51, 55. 



168 



INDEX 



Davis, Jonathan, 58, 62. 
Dawes, Thomas, 35. 
Dexter, George M., 98. 
Dexter, Katherine, 83. 
Dexter, Samuel, 82, 83, 87. 
Doll & Richards, 111. 
Downes, William Howe, 128. 
Duff, John, 61. 
Duveneck, Frank, 128. 
Dwight, Edmund, 51. 
Dwight, Mrs. Thomas, 104. 
Dwight, Timothy, 8. 
Dwight, Miss, 111, 112. 

Elms, the Paddock, 157-60; a ven- 
erable elm, 164. 
Erving, John, 139, 140. 
Eustis, William, 95. 
Everett, Edward, 90. 

Fairbanks, Richard, 37. 
Fayerweather, John, 143, 152. 
Fire, the Great Boston, 110. 
Fleet, Thomas, 50. 
Fletcher, Robert, 125. 
Francis, Ebenezer, 155, 156. 
Franklin Monument, 48. 

Gardner, Henry Joseph, 76, 77. 

Gardner, John L., 151. 

Gardner, Gov., 101, 103. 

George, Mary Morse, 155. 

George Tavern, the, 12. 

Gibson, Mrs. C. H., 109. 

Gingko trees, 162, 163. 

Goodspeed book-shop, 67. 

Gordon, Adam, 139. 

Gore, Christopher, 25, 75, 86, 87. 

Gore, John, emigrant ancestor of 
Gore family, 75. 

Gore, John, descendant of preced- 
ing, 75. 

Gore, John, grandson of preceding, 
64, 69, 75, 76, 79. 

Gore, Mary, 64. 



Granary, the, 45, 46. 

Granary Burying-Groimd, 47-50, 

102-04. 
Gray, Francis Galley, 64, 69, 98. 
Gray, Harrison, 89. 
Gray, William, 65. 
Greenough, Horatio, 76. 
Griifin, Rev. Edward Dorr, 117. 

Haldiman, General Frederick, 26, 
27. 

Hale, Susan, quoted on ladies' 
apartment of the Union Club, 78. 

Hammond, Mrs. Samuel, 109. 

Hancock, John, 13, 16, 48; grave, 
111. 

Hancock, Thomas, his mansion, 
13-15; his pasture becomes prop- 
erty of town, 20. 

Hancock, Mrs., 16. 

Harding, Chester, 125-27. 

Hawthorne Hall, 56, 57. 

Heard, Augustine, 61. 

Henderson, William H., 137, 

Hillard, Mr., quoted on Jeremiah 
Mason, 90, 91. 

Hinckley, Anne, 148, 149. 

Hinckley, David, 148. 

Hinckley mansion-house, the, 147- 
51. 

Hodgkinson, William Gill, 149. 

Hodson, Thomas, 7, 8. 

Holmes, Dr. O. W., quoted on Dr. 
W^arren, 71; on the Registry of 
Deeds and the Probate Office, 
84; on Dr. Jeffries, 86; anecdote 
of, 161. 

Homans, Mrs. Charles D., 73. 

Hough, Atherton, his residence, 11. 

Houghton & Dutton Company,151. 

Houghton Mifflin Company, 62. 

House of Correction, 39, 40, 44. 

Hull, John, 48. 



Jackson, General Henry, 115. 



169 



INDEX 



Jackson, Lydia, 155. 

James, Henry, quoted on the State 

House, 19; on Park Street 

Church, 116. 
Jefifries, Dr. John, 79, 86, 87. 
Jewell, Harvey, 124. 
Jewell, Marshall, 124. 
JoSre, Marshal, 94. 
Joy, Dr. John, 17. 
Joy Street, early name of, 14, 16. 

Keayne, Captain Robert, 32. 
Know-Nothing Party, 77. 

Lafayette, General, his visit to Bos- 
ton in 1824, 93-97. 

Law-breakers, 44. 

Lawrence, Abbott, 79, 101. 

Lawrence, Katharine Bigelow, 79. 

Leslie, C. R., 90. 

Lloyd, James, Sr., 154. 

Lloyd, James, Jr., 154. 

Lloyd estate, the, 154-56. 

Loring, Katharine P., 74, 92. 

Lovett, James D'Wolf, on coasting, 
27. 

Lowell, Francis C, 55. 

Lowell, James Russell, anecdote of 
Mayor Quincy, 66. 

Lowell, John Amory, 78. 

Lowell Institute, 78. 

Lucas, E. v., quoted on Beacon- 
Street fagades, 18. 

Lyman, Mrs. Charles, 104. 

Malbone, Edward Greene, 92, 93. 
Mason, Jeremiah, 88. 
Mason, Jonathan, 8, 55. 
Mason, Susan Powell, 107. 
Mason, the Misses, 16. 
Mayflower Club, 73. 
Merriam, Charles, 130, 
Miller, Samuel Ridgway, 62. 
Mills, James K., 124, 130. 
Minot, George Richards, 35, 



Mitchell, John G., 85. 
Molineaux, William, 133-35. 
Molineaux estate, the, 133-38. 
Monument, Beacon Hill, 3, 6. 
Morse, Elijah, 155, 
Morse, John Torrey, 130. 
Motley, John Lothrop, 110. 
Motley, Mrs. Thomas, 109. 
Mount Vernon, 6. 

Neal, Elizabeth, 48. 

Oliver, James, 123. 
Osgood, Lydia N., 84, 
Otis, Harrison Gray, 8, 86-89. 
Overseers of the Poor, 32. 

Paddock, Adino, 157-59. 

Paddock elms, the 157-60. 

Park, Rev. J. Edgar, quoted on 
Park Street Church, 121. 

Park Place, 24, 25. 

Park Street, early names of, 1, 24; 
in the early part of the nine- 
teenth centurj% 24-29; Bliss Per- 
ry's description of, 28, 29; Num- 
ber One, 51-54; Number Two, 
55-57, 101-11; Number Three, 
58-61; Number Four, 62, 63; 
Number Five, 64-68; Number 
Six, 69-74, 98-101 ; Number Sev- 
en, 75-78; Union Club house, 79, 
80; the Amory-Ticknor house, 
81-97; reminiscences of, 98-114. 

Park Street Church, 115-22; 
schools in, 111-13. 

Park Street Church Society, 117. "" 

Park Street Mall, 24, 29, 

Parsons, Theophilus, 87. 

Payne, Mary and Sarah, 123, 124, 
130. 

Payne, William, 79, 86, 87, 130. 

Peabody, Joseph, 150. 

Peabody, Mrs. Oliver W., 73. 

Pemberton Hill, 6. 



170 



INDEX 



Perkins, James, 131. 

Perkins, Thomas Handasyd, 28, 64, 

69, 75. 
Perkins Institution for the Blind, 

75. 
Perodi, Pietro, 148, 149. 
Perry, Bliss, quoted on Park Street, 

28, 29; on the home of the At- 
lantic Monthly, 62, 63. 
Phillips, Abigail, 65. 
Phillips, Jonathan, 16, 48, 145. 
Phillips, Wendell, birthplace of, 16; 

at time of Lafayette's visit to 

Boston, 94. 
Phillips, William, 131, 144. 
Ponsonby, Lady Caroline, 128. 
Pound, the Town, 37, 38. 
Prescott, W. H., 90. 
Preston, Jonathan, 155, 156. 
Prison Reform Society, 118. 
Probate Office, O. W. Holmes on, 84. 
Public Garden, Gingko trees in, 

163. 

Quincy, Edmund, 10. 

Quincy, Josiah, the elder, 29, 65- 

67, 100. 
Quincy, Josiah, the younger, 62, 67. 
Quincy, Josiah, 3rd, 67, 68. 

Rane, Frank William, 161. 
Rawson, Edward, 47. 
Raymond, Curtis Burritt, 84, 85. 
Raymond Building, the, 84. 
Reed, Elinor, 32. 
Registry of Deeds, O. W. Holmes 

on, 84. 
Religious Educational Society, 129. 
Revere, Paul, 48. 
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, painting of, 

128. 
Ripley, George, 37, 38. 
Ritchie, Andrew, 86, 88. 
Rogers, Daniel Dennison, 135-37. 
Rogers, Elizabeth, 135. 



Rogers, Simon, 12. 

Roy all, Mrs., quoted on the State 

House, 18, 19. 
Russell, Benjamin, 59. 

Sargent, Lucius Manlius, on Sam- 
uel Dexter, 83. 

Sawyer, Matthias Plant, 83, 84. 

School Street, name of, 11, 12. 

Scott, Sir Walter, portrait of, 90. 

Sears, David, Sr., 152. 

Sears, David, Jr., 152, 153. 

Sears estate, the, 150, 152, 153. 

Sentry Hill. See Beacon Hill. 

Sentry Street. See Park Street. 

Sewall, Justice Samuel, 48. 

Sewall, Samuel, merchant, 143. 

Shackelton, Robert, quoted on Bea- 
con Hill, 17. 

Shaw, Amy, 73. 

Shurtleff, Nathaniel B., quoted on 
the Almshouse, 35, 36; on the 
Paddock elms, 157. 

Smith, Dr. Jerome Van Crownin- 
shield, 15, 121. 

Smith, Samuel Francis, author of 
"America," 118. 

Society to Encourage Studies at 
Home, the, 92. 

Somerset Club, the, 150, 153. 

South Latin School Street, 12. 

Spinning Schools, 134. 

Stanwood, Edward, 31. 

State House, laying of corner-stone 
of, 20-22; completion of, 22; sub- 
sequent changes in, 23. 

Story, Judge Joseph, 83. 

Sullivan, James, 87. 

Sullivan, John, 59. 

Sullivan, Richard, grandson of 
John, 58, 59. 

Sullivan, Richard, son of Richard, 
59. 

Sullivan, Mr., his school, 113. 

Summer Street, 16. 



171 



INDEX 



Sumner, Increase, 22. 

Sumner, William H., quoted on 

Lafayette, 95, 96. 
Swan, Hepsibah, 115. 
Swift, Lindsay, quoted on Park 

Street Church, 117. 

Thatcher, Rev. Dr., 22. 
Thresher, Francis, 34. 
Thurston, WUliam, 115, 117, 136. 
Ticknor, Anna Eliot, 92. 
Ticknor, George, 25, 86, 89-92. 
Tower, D. B., 112. 
Trees, on the Common, 160, 161; 

Gingko, 162, 163. See Elms. 
Tremont Street Mall, 30. 
Trollope, Anthony, his praise of 

Boston, 17, 18. 
Turner, Robert, 133, 143. 
Tweed, Mr., 112. 

Union Club, the, 75, 78-80. 
Unitarian Book-Room, 129. 

Vergoose, Elizabeth, 50. 
Vinton, Rev. Alexander H., 107. 

Walley, Samuel H., 115. ' 

Ward, Artemas, 76. 

Ward, Lydia, 59, 61. 

Ward, Thomas Wren, 59-61. 

Warren, Annie C, 109, 111. 

Warren, EmUy, 106. 

Warren, James Sullivan, 69, 101, 

104, 107. 
Warren, Mrs. James Sullivan, 74, 

107. 
Warren, Dr. John, 104; deposition 

of, 42, 43; career, 69, 70. 
Warren, John Collins, the elder, 

51, 55, 60, 98, 104, 107; raised 

funds for Franklin monument, 

49 71.; career, 70, 71. 



iniscences of Park Street, 98- 

114. 
Warren, Dr. Jonathan Mason, 69, 

104, 107, 110, 111; career, 71, 72. 
Warren, General Joseph, 55, 70. 
Warren, Joseph, son of John Collins, 

73. 
Warren Building, the, 56. 
Warren Institution for Savings, 61. 
Warville, Jean Pierre Brissot de, 

quoted, on the Workhouse, 43; 

on Governor Bowdoin, 140. 
Webb, Henry, 32. 
Webster, Daniel, 60, 61, 90. 
Welles, Elizabeth, 55. 
Welles, General, 51, 55. 
Wendell, Judge Oliver, 16, 17. 
Whippers, 39. 
White, Richard Grant, his opinion 

of the State House dome, 23. 
Whitmore, Charles O., 130. 
Wiggin, Benjamin, 150. 
Wigglesworth, Edward, emigrant 

ancestor of Wigglesworth family, 

52. 
Wigglesworth, Edward, son of 

Michael, 53. 
Wigglesworth, Edward, son of Ed- 
ward, son of Michael, 52. 
Wigglesworth, the sisters Jane, 

Mary, and Anne, 51, 
Wigglesworth, Rev. Michael, 52, 53. 
Wigglesworth, Thomas, 51, 53, 54. 
Willard, Solomon, 48 n., 116, 150. 
Wilson, Rev. John, 123. 
Wines, E. C, praises Boston, 18. 
Winthrop, Anne, 107. 
Winthrop, Robert C, 107. 
Wisner, Rev., quoted on William 

Phillips, 144. 
Wolcott, Emily, 127. 
Wood, William, quoted on Beacon 

Hill, 6. 
Woodruff, Caroline, 126. 



Warren, Dr. John Collins, the 
younger, career, 72, 73; his rem- | Workhouse, the, 41-44, 

172 



